The House of Representatives approved a bill Wednesday by a 356-71 vote that would cut interest rates for subsidized student loans in half. However, the Bush administration has said it doesn't support this $6 billion investment.

The truth is, the Bush administration can't afford to not support this bill. Penn State President Graham Spanier answered questions at Friday's Board of Trustees meeting about the significant amount of debt Penn State students can accrue while studying at the university and it is simply representative of the skyrocketing costs of higher education. Reports from spring 2006 showed that Penn State students leave college with an average debt of $19,700, far more than the national average of public universities.

If students at a public university can barely afford to go there, what about the ones who aspire to the Harvards and Yales of the world? The university community can only go so far in providing scholarships and grants to its students. The state and federal government must step in to help students.

No students should be denied the opportunity of higher education, but if the administration and Congress let this valuable piece of legislation pass by, then they are sentencing young people around the country to a life of debt. What motivation will students have to go to college when they know they will be paying back loans for years following graduation?

The government simply cannot put a price on education. The students of today will run the government tomorrow - if they can get out of student debt. The brightest minds of our generation could be silenced by the piles of dollars they will be forced to repay after finishing their college degrees.

Instead of going into public service, they will head toward the private sector so they can make the money to pay for their education and to one day send their children to college.

Is this really the environment that President Bush and Congress want to foster in the United States? We think not. This bill is not the answer to higher education's monumental financial aid problem, but it is a start. At the very least, it gives students and their parents a fighting chance to achieve the education they want and the career they desire.