You Can Now Text Obama Your Student Loan Questions

For one week only, you’ll be able to text President Obama your student loan questions and concerns.

The new campaign started by DoSomething.org, a non-profit organization for social change, encourages young people to text the president their questions about student loan debt. Each day, DoSomething will forward one question to the president for him to answer. His response will then be sent to everyone who participates in the campaign.

“We just want to amplify the youth voice,” DoSomething COO Aria Finger told Mashable. “We want people to know that DoSomething.org is the place they can get their voice heard.”

Finger said that the most frequent questions would be chosen, and DoSomething believes that the campaign will appeal to high school seniors, college students, and recent graduates.

“We like to give our members special access, so when this oportunity with the White House came up it was a no-brainer,” Finger said. “Our whole goal is to get young people to take action.”

While student loans are the only topic of discussion this week, Finger said that the campaign will be ongoing, and that new topics will be chosen for subsequent rounds.

Student loan interest on new subsidized loans is set to double on July 1, and incoming college freshman will be paying 6.8 percent. House Republicans argued that higher interest rates would equal $6 billion in spending cuts, while Senate Democrats wanted to keep interest at the current rate of 3.4 percent.

According to the Congressional Budget Office (CBO), more than $38 billion of nearly $113 in new student loans will be lost to defaulted loans. Add to that the fact that student loan debt is now over $1 trillion, and this new batch of college students could be in serious trouble by the time they graduate.

To submit your student loan question to President Obama, text PREZ to 38383.

Would you participate in “Text with the President?” What would you ask him about student loans?