Higher education was an important source of both economic opportunity and mobility for Americans, revealed a report jointly released on Thursday by the U. S. Treasury Department and Education Department.
"The data and analysis confirm that higher education is critical for socioeconomic advancement and an important driver of economic mobility," noted the report.
The median weekly earnings for a bachelor's degree holder in 2011 was 1,053 U.S. dollars, about 65 percent higher than the 638 dollars earned by high school graduates in the United States, according to the report.
Without a college degree, children born to parents in the bottom income quintile have a 45-percent chance of remaining in the income distribution as adults. With a college degree, they have less than a 20-percent chance of staying in the bottom quintile of the income distribution, added the report.
U.S. President Barack Obama has called on Congress to keep interest rates on student loans from doubling. Without the extension by Congress, the interest rates on new federally subsidized student loans will increase from 3.4 percent, a temporary rate reduction that was enacted in 2007, to 6.8 percent since July 1.
The Obama administration estimated that about 7.4 million students would borrow such loans in the year beginning July 1, averaging 4,226 U.S. dollars for each student.
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