Graduate student loans at risk in debt ceiling debate...

According to this Forbes article, under both the Boehner and Reid plans no new subsidized loans would be issued for graduate students after July 1, 2012. 

From the article:

The competing deficit reduction/debt ceiling increase plans proposed by House Speaker John Boehner (R-Ohio) and Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid (D-NV) would both cut off subsidized Stafford student loans for graduate and professional students.

Currently, graduate and professional students can take out up to $20,500 a year in federal  loans, and up to $8,500 of this amount can be in subsidized loans if they’re found to have financial need.  (Details here, at the government’s student aid web site.)  With the subsidized variety of loans, Uncle Sam pays the interest due while students are in school and during a six month “grace period” after they’ve left school and before repayment begins.  With the unsubsidized variety,  interest accrues while students study and during the grace period, adding to the amount they must pay back when they graduate.

Under both the Boehner and Reid plans, no new subsidized loans would be issued to graduate students after July 1, 2012.  The savings would be used to help fund the Pell Grant program, which provides lower income undergraduates with grants of up to $5,500 a year. (More explanation of  how the Pell program would be funded is at the Ed Money Watch blog here.)

So, for any Graduate student readers out there, hurry up and finish!