Our Opinion: Support the Five-Point Plan for Loan Payments by contacting the U.S. Department of Education before Thursday.

Every year it’s the same story.

More textbooks, increased tuition, maxed-out fees — and along the way, mounting student loans playing off the tried and true college tradition of procrastination. Students are undoubtedly spending now, but the trouble is that more and more graduates are having trouble paying later.

Now that number stands at 40 percent.

That’s the percentage of students who graduate with unmanageable debt, according to the State Public Interest Research Group’s Higher Education Project. Even worse, the group reported in April that more than 23 percent of all four-year public college graduates have too much debt to manage as a starting teacher.

And that’s bad — especially for a state like North Carolina, which is struggling to find and adequately pay for quality educators.

But if there’s anything clear about this problem, it’s that no one in the federal government really seems to be paying much attention, especially in light of the $12.7 billion cut to federal student loan programs Republican legislators championed — and passed — in February.

But the State PIRGs aren’t just analyzing the problem — they’re doing something about it. The nonprofit, nonpartisan advocacy body is working with a coalition of student, parent, loan industry and higher education interest groups on a national campaign to convince the Department of Education to change the rules and make repayment options more reasonable.

The Five-Point Plan for Fair Loan Payments will ensure future college graduates will be able to pay back what they owe, instead of drowning in debt before they even start their careers.

It sure is nice to see somebody finally standing up for us — but they can’t do it alone.

The coalition may carry quite a bit of clout, especially because they’re led by the former acting general counsel at the DoE, but that alone won’t make this a done deal. They need your help to show the department this issue is important to students and their families.

Visit and fill out the form to send a letter or an e-mail to U.S. Secretary of Education Margaret Spellings. They need all comments by Thursday.

Tell your family. Tell your friends. Tell anybody possible that taking a few minutes to send the form now may save you and countless college graduates across the country money later.

It’s definitely worth your time now, but as you may find out too late, it could be worth a lot more to you later.