The big day is finally here; your parents are sitting in the crowd with tears in their eyes as you walk across that stage to receive your college diploma. Only to let it sink in that you will spend the next portion of your life working to pay off your student debt.

The average college student collects at least $27,000 of debt through private and federal loans. That doesn’t take into consideration the interest that will be piled on six months after you finish up school.

How nice would it be to stick with a fixed interest rate instead of having it jump up on you adding thousands of more dollars to your debt?

Sen. Elizabeth Warren came up with the Bank of Students Emergency Loan Refining Act, an ideal solution for college graduates. This act would allow borrowers to refinance their student loans for a low fixed rate of 3.86 percent. The money lost would be regained by taxing the upper class along with wealthy business owners.

“… Lower tax bills for millionaires or lower student loan bills for the middle class.” President Obama said while conversing with Warren before describing his plan to control student loan debt. “This should be a no-brainer.”

Yet the proposal is very controversial. Some believe that lowering the interest rate is an attempt to persuade people to take their time paying back their loans in order to receive loan forgiveness.

Since 1982, tuition prices have raised 439 percent, or four times the inflation rate. Tuition prices continue to rise along with the interest rate. With these numbers, it’s obvious why students are in such large debt.

Warren’s bill to refinance student loans died in the Senate, but she is not giving up. Republicans were set on it not going through, even insisting that it was a waste of time to be brought up.

Lowering interest rates to help reduce student debt is definitely a subject to be brought up. The United States has more than 40 billion individuals with a collection of over $1 trillion in student debt. The sad fact to state is that this is only rising.

Although some may blame the government for high taxes, it is the borrower who is partially to blame. Some people are aimlessly paying back their loans, not even knowing how much they are paying. Without knowing your lender, grace period, or contract, you could miss out on a better option and unknowingly put yourself into further debt.

Knowing what loans you have taken out and need to pay back is incredibly important. The government is not always on the side that it seems. If people leave their fate in the government’s hand, there is no telling what will happen. Student-loan debt only keeps increasing. While some of the senators are trying to take action to help reduce this trend, others aren’t allowing it. After the election, the sad truth is that all we can do is watch it happen and hope that the cards are dealt in our favor.