New America Senior Research Fellow Stephen Burd appeared on the April 24 edition of CNN's "Lou Dobbs Tonight." A partial transcript is available below; for the full story please visit the CNN website.

ANNOUNCER: This is LOU DOBBS TONIGHT, news, debate and opinion for Tuesday, April 24th.

Live from New York, Lou Dobbs.

DOBBS: Good evening, everybody...

DOBBS: The rapidly rising cost of a college education in this country creating an almost unmanageable burden for many of our middle class, and emerging details of corruption and cronyism in the student loan industry. All yet another blow to the millions of students and their families struggling to pay their way.

Christine Romans has our report.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

CHRISTINE ROMANS, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice over): Two-thirds of these students will graduate with debt, median debt now $19,300.

STEPHEN BURD, THE [NEW] AMERICA FOUNDATION: There are significant numbers of students who are taking out $30,000, $40,000, $50,000 in loans. Some of these loans are federal loans, but increasingly students are relying on private loans, which come with higher interest rates.

ROMANS: Tuition prices have soared 35 percent over the past five years, making volatile, expensive private loans a necessity. A federal loan interest rate is capped at 6.8 percent. But a private loan can hit 18 to 20 percent, loans which didn't even exist a generation ago...