The Rhode Island Student Loan Authority plans to sell $64 million in bonds in what would be the first U.S. municipal offering backed by student-loan revenue this year, according to data compiled by Bloomberg.

The fixed-rate debt will be secured by private loans for which students will pay about 6.5 percent to 8 percent, according to Fitch Ratings. Citigroup will run the sale as soon as this week, Bloomberg data show.

The $60 million of senior bonds and $4 million of subordinate bonds received preliminary ratings of AAA and A, respectively, from Fitch and Standard & Poor’s. Proceeds of the bond sale will be used to acquire $60 million of loans through September 2009, Fitch said.

Student-loan agencies have struggled to raise capital as the auction-rate securities market, which they relied upon to raise about $86 billion, collapsed when dealers stopped stepping in with their own capital to buy debt that went unsold at periodic bidding.

No new municipal bonds backed by student loans, including auction-rate debt, were sold in the first quarter, the first time that happened in almost 40 years, according to Thomson Reuters news service. No taxable bonds backed by private student loans, which lack guarantees from the U.S. government, have been sold this year, according to UBS AG and Bloomberg data.

Interest on the Rhode Island student-loan bonds will be subject to calculations of the federal alternative minimum tax.