COLUMBIA, Mo. – Student body presidents from three Missouri universities have joined a national campaign urging Congress to extend the current interest rates on student loans.

In a letter, student body presidents Ashley Koesterer, Missouri University of Science and Technology, Matthew Re, Washington University in St. Louis, and Nick Droege, University of Missouri, joined a national call on lawmakers to prevent interest rates from doubling from 3.4 percent to 6.8 percent on July 1.

“We urge you to take action by July 1st and believe now is an opportunity to implement a comprehensive, student-centered approach to student loan reform to more aggressively tackle the student debt crisis,” they wrote.

In a statement on Thursday, Droege said the issue is prevalent for students in Missouri. He pointed to a report from Campus Progress that claims Missouri students alone owe $144,304,137 in student debt, part of some $1 trillion in student debt held nationwide.

“Education is not only a priority, but it should also be viewed as an investment and it is time our government treats it as such,” he said.

Droege was one of a handful of students who met with U.S. Sen. Claire McCaskill about the issue earlier this month in Columbia. McCaskill, who made the issue of student loans one of the major pillars of her 2012 reelection campaign, pledged at the time to seek an extension of the current loan rate.

At the time, McCaskill touted her support of legislation that would allow students, who currently pay 3.4 percent interest rate on their loans, to seek the 0.75 percent rate offered to banks when borrowing under the Federal Reserve’s discount window.

Some 157,000 Missouri students will receive Subsidized Stafford Loans in the 2013-2014 school year, according to government numbers.

Sen. Roy Blunt, in a post on Twitter earlier this month, said: “Instead of playing politics, Pres Obama should work [with] Congress on bipartisan reform to help Americans avoid high interest student loan rates.”