Skyrocketing tuition, cuts in state funding and stagnant job growth are just a few of the many reasons America’s young adults struggle with student loan debt.

According to MarketWatch, the outstanding balance of the nation’s collective student loans totals $1.3 trillion, growing at a rate of $3,055 every second. About 40 million Americans are paying student loans. Seventy percent of students graduate college with debt.

Those who borrowed through high-interest federal student loans have few options. But a bill sponsored by Sen. Shelley Moore Capito seeks to allow borrowers to refinance their federal loans through the private market’s lower rates, the Gazette-Mail’s Samuel Speciale reported.

Naysayers claim the bill is a gift to Wall Street banks and places borrowers at greater risk. Student loans held by banks generally don’t offer the same range of protections as do those held by the federal government, like income-based repayment or loan forgiveness.

That risk indeed may be too great for some, but critics are lumping all student-debt saddled Americans into the same basket. Though some borrowers have a difficult time making minimum payments, many find secure, good-paying jobs and may accept the higher risk for lower rates.

Take for example a student who graduates college with $45,000 in student loan debt at 8 percent interest. At the minimum payment, that student will pay $376 monthly. At the end of a 20-year repayment period, the borrower will have paid a total of around $90,000, including $45,000 in interest alone.

But by chopping that interest rate in half and keeping all other variables the same, the borrower would pay $272 a month, with a total repayment of just over $65,000, including $20,000 in interest.

Imagine what a young adult could do with $100 extra each month. That’s money that could be used toward a new car, a down payment on a house or other big-ticket purchases that could help drive the economy.

American borrowers are looking for ways to get out from under the cloud of student loan debt. Capito’s bill gives borrowers an opportunity to assess for themselves the risks and benefits of refinancing their loans.

Lower rates will be a gift to borrowers, even if it helps Wall Street, as well as local banks. The federal government shouldn’t stifle a competitive program that prevents borrowers from being locked into high rates.