President Barack Obama has issued a series of executive actions that will help college students consolidate loans and reduce payments.

Secretary of education Arne Duncan, Director of the White House Domestic Policy Council Melody Barnes  and Raj Date, special adviser to the secretary of the treasury on the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau, spoke to reporters Wednesday during a conference call on Obama’s attempts to help students.

“We have to educate to a better economy,” Duncan said.

There are two million highly skilled jobs available to the American public, but colleges are no longer producing enough employees to fill them, he said. If something is not done, then companies will take their businesses to countries that can fill them.

The plan is part of the “Pay as you Earn,” program passed by Congress, originally meant to begin in 2014, Barnes said. Obama has sped that process up to begin the program in January of 2012. This will cap loan payments at 10 percent of student’s income and allow them to consolidate their loans into a single lender, she said. People no longer enrolled in school can still participate in the program.

The administration plans to make loans cheaper by no longer subsidizing, or financially supporting, banks so they will give students cheaper loans, and instead have students consolidate their loans directly with the federal government, Dates said.

“In other words, cutting out the middle man,” he said.

Only 450,000 people are taking advantage of current loan programs, but there are more than 36 million people borrowing, Barnes said.

The government needs to increase the number of people using the programs, Duncan said, because students avoid low-paying but necessary fields, like education and nursing, if they feel their income will be insufficient to pay loans back.

Despite the president’s action, tuition has increased nationally by 8.3 percent and student loans will go up to 6.8 percent in July, Barnes said.

However, even if tuition prices do not drop in the near future, students eventually will vote with their feet, Date said. Community college is becoming a more reasonable option and students can graduate with next to no debt.

These programs are just one of the steps the Bureau of Consumer Protection is taking to help students, Date said. Students remain confused by misleading jargon, are unaware of the number of lenders available to them and do not know how much debt is too much debt, he said. The bureau, therefore, created www.consumerfinance.gov to explain loans and loan payments to students.

The president’s actions are in response to Congress' refusal to pass the American Jobs Act he submitted, Barnes said, and he is accusing the legislature of becoming a “do nothing” Congress.

The people can no longer wait for Congress to help them, they need reprisal from their economic problems now, Obama said during a speech he gave in Dallas Tuesay.

Students who wish to participate in the program can access it by going to www.studentaid.ed.gov.