Somerville, MA – With a July 1 deadline only days away, Elizabeth Warren’s campaign is calling on Republican Senator Scott Brown to put the interests of Massachusetts students and their families ahead of his Republican leaders in Washington and support reasonable legislation to prevent student loan interest rates from doubling.

"Republican Scott Brown has demonstrated again and again that he does not stand with Massachusetts families,” said Mindy Myers, campaign manager for Elizabeth Warren for Massachusetts. "Young people shouldn’t suddenly be asked to pay more to get an education. But Scott Brown would rather fight to preserve subsidies for Big Oil and work to weaken Wall Street regulation than fight to help middle class families across the Commonwealth. He needs to stop following his Republican leaders and start listening to Massachusetts families.”

For the last several months, Republican Scott Brown has marched in lock step with Minority Leader Mitch McConnell and his fellow Republicans in the U.S. Senate by refusing to support reasonable legislation that would keep student loans affordable for Massachusetts students and their families.

Brown’s efforts to block two proposed bills that would have prevented student loan interest rates from doubling threaten to sharply increase the cost of loans for families across the Commonwealth. If Congress does not take action, interest rates on new Subsidized Stafford Loans will rise from 3.4 percent to 6.8 percent on July 1st.

More than 195,000 students throughout Massachusetts received Subsidized Stafford Loans last year. Students would see their interest rates double on new loans beginning next week if Congress does not act. It is estimated that the increase will cost the average student borrower $1,000. Republican Scott Brown has now voted twice to block legislation that would have prevented this interest rate increase.