Protesters with the Occupy Wall Street movement have been camping out in the financial district of New York City for over a month, filling Zuccotti Park with signs and tents, demanding a change in regime in our so-called “free-market economy.” Claiming to represent 99 percent of Americans, they are intent on stopping corporations from controlling the country. “We can no longer afford to let corporate greed and corrupt politics set the policies of our nation,” Occupy Wall Street stated in their website.

The Occupy Wall Street movement has stirred up the national discussion of our economic crisis. Being predominately a youth movement, some protesters have finally brought the plight of students into the conversation, so politicians can see the destruction student loan debts have on the youth population.

Still, the protesters are not looking directly at the problem that is causing the student loan crisis — private lenders taking advantage of students by jacking up unregulated interest rates when credit rises. What the protesters in New York and across the country should do to alleviate the burden on students is to stop occupying Wall Street, and turn their frustrations toward the specific corporations that are responsible for entrapping youth who are seeking to finance their education. Students signed up for loans, not realizing the interest rate would spiral; protestors need to demand government regulations that would limit the interest rates private lenders are capable of charging.

Although President Obama has instituted a plan to help students pay off their debt, it is not enough; as it only affects government loans and it does not touch on the issues of private loans, or a related issue, college tuition rates. His plan includes allowing students to consolidate their multiple federal loans into a single loan, and save 2.5 percent on all their loans. However, that financial break is already available to students who signed up for online billing or auto pay, according to the San Francisco Chronicle article “U.S. help on college loans isn’t so much” by Kathleen Pender on Oct. 27. Another change is transforming Income-Based Repayment (IBR) into a new program: Pay as You Earn, changing the maximum payment plan from 15 percent of students’ annual income, forgiven after 25 years of payment to 10 percent after 20 years. However this change was already set for 2014; all Obama did was adjust that date up to 2012, according to Pender. Obama now needs to focus on more major needs: regulating the interest rates of private lenders and investing more funding in education.

College tuition rates have skyrocketed due to the country’s under-funded educational system for public schools and have a share in the blame of the student loan debt crisis. Part of the frustration of Occupy Wall Street is that only 3.7 percent of the federal budget is dedicated to preliminary through postsecondary education this year, while 24.36 percent is devoted to military purposes. The California budget, which devotes more funds to education than the federal budget, spent only $11,140,400 this year on higher level education, according to the Department of Finance’s 2011-12 California Budget, a website that reports the California budgets. This lack of funding forces public universities to increase tuition rates to stay afloat. In fact, the median tuition rate in public colleges and universities has more than doubled since 1988, even though the median American income has dropped $400 since 1988, adjusted for inflation, according to the CNN Money article “Surging college costs price out middle class” by Annalyn Censky on June 13. With unemployment rates through the roof, students who cannot secure jobs, or other means of acquiring funds, such as scholarships, are being forced to give in to the greedy private lenders. We need to demand an increase in educational funding to assuage the burden placed on students.

In the crisis that is our economy, Occupy Wall Street protesters recognize an issue that concerns us students, the suffocating manipulation of our credit status by private moneylenders, specifically, subprime student loan lenders. Much like mortgage brokers, — whose get-rich-quick schemes caused the housing market to crash in 2008 — as college tuition has increased, for-profit student lending corporations have benefited greatly off the middle and lower classes. According to FinAid, an organization that assists students with college payments, the total student loan debt that Americans collectively owe is approaching $1 trillion, about $23,186 per loaner. As of now, “private student loans are not subsidized by the government, and therefore are not regulated as closely,” Simple Tuition, a financial aid company, stated, “They may have variable interest rates and fees that are based on the credit profile of the borrower.”

However, unlike the mortgage lenders, student loan lenders go largely unregulated by the government, trapping students in massive debt with ridiculously high interest rates. According to The New York Times “A New Type of Student Loan, but Still a Risk” by Ron Lieber on July 1, 2011, interest on student loans from Wells Fargo are advertised at 7.29 percent, however, since students have not built up their credit at that early age, if they miss one payment, their credit will drop and their interest rates will rise, reaching as high as 14.21 percent. Banks like Wells Fargo are using the classic “bait and switch” tactic used to bring in business and then jack up the prices. This differs from federal loans — the subsidized Stafford interest rates are at 3.4 percent for this school year. It is important for students to research all funding possibilities; if they can qualify for government loans, they will pay a much lower interest rate.

However, many students are unaware of the devastating effects of private loans, and hence do not pursue government loans before turning to private lenders. Private lenders such as Sallie Mae, the largest student loan lender in the country, make a fortune off student loans because they “bundle” the loans and sell them to investors, according to the Financial Web, a website that assists in financial management, article “The Secondary Market." This way, the lenders continue to make money off the high interest rates, while passing the risk of students defaulting on their loans down the line. This technique — employed by the mortgage companies before they tanked — appears clever, but we saw the negative impact the housing market crash had on our economy.

Now students are failing to pay back these loans more than ever; 320,000 students defaulted on their loans last year, up 33 percent from the previous year, according to the Department of Education. By lowering the credit for loan approvals, and increasing the interest rates beyond reason, these private lenders are setting up students to default on their loans.

Student loans will affect some of us as soon as next year. We need to encourage those brave enough to take a stand against the corporation-controlled economy and demand both regulations to rein in the private lenders of student loans and funding for the universities that are being forced to increase tuition rates. We need to stand up to the profiteers that are bankrupting our generation.

A version of this article first appeared in the Nov. 4, 2011 print edition of The Lowell.