WASHINGTON -- Senate Democrats and college students will gather on Capitol Hill on Wednesday to call on Congress to hold the line on interest rates for subsidized Stafford Loans.

Unless there's a compromise, those interest rates are set to double to 6.8 percent on July 1, and that would affect about 7 million college students taking out new loans.

Another issue is the overall student loan debt level.

More students are borrowing more money than ever before since the cost of college is going up faster than family incomes.

Two-thirds of recent graduates had an average debt of more than $25,000.

"My aspiration in going to college was to be able to support a family in the future and not struggle. Now I feel like I'm in a worse place than my parents ever were," said college graduate Melissa Rubio.  

Most political analysts expect a compromise on the Stafford Loan interest rates by the end of the month.

ATLANTA (AP) - A former chief information officer for Atlanta's school system accused of accepting bribes in exchange for his influence in awarding a technology contract has pleaded not guilty.

Jerome Oberlton entered his plea in federal court in Atlanta Tuesday. A federal grand jury handed down a seven-count indictment last week naming Oberlton and another man, Mahendra Patel, in the bribery scheme. Patel also pleaded not guilty.

The indictment says the two accepted $60,000 in kickbacks from an information technology company that won a contract worth more than $700,000 from the school district.

Oberlton served as chief information officer for Atlanta schools from 2004 to 2007. Oberlton joined the Dallas school district in January and was working as chief of staff. He resigned last week after informing the superintendent of the investigation.

THE FLATS -- Georgia Tech's men's tennis recruiting class for 2013, which includes blue-chip prospect Will Showers from Atlanta, has been ranked the 11th-best in the nation according to a group of experts impaneled by the Tennis Recruiting Network.

Showers, who plays out of the Tennis Academy of the South and is rated the No. 19 prospect nationally, highlights the Yellow Jackets' incoming group that also includes Cole Fiegel of Alachua, Fla., ranked 138th nationally, and Carlos Benito of Madrid, Spain, ranked 85th in Spain by the International Tennis Federation.

The freshman trio beefs up a Tech roster that returns three juniors and two sophomores from last year's team, which began competing in January in the brand-new, state-of-the-art Ken Byers Tennis Complex, which includes six indoor and six outdoor competition courts, as well as four outdoor practice courts.