Was Live Friday April 19, 2024
Related Coverage
Guest Speakers
- Adam Minsky, student loan lawyer and author
- Michele Shepard Zampini, TICAS Senior Director of College Affordability
- Testimonial from a borrower who had over $100,000 in debt and received student loan forgiveness last year
Event Overview
Student debt is the second largest form of consumer credit, next to mortgages, and today, more than 45 million people owe nearly $1.7 trillion. Every 26 seconds, one of those student loan borrowers defaults on their loan. The effect is not just that people can spend their whole lives deeply in debt, sometimes into old age, but that it generates further economic, gender, and racial inequality in our society.
Over the last few years, the Biden Administration has tried to ease and expand on student debt forgiveness programs launched under the Obama administration, achieving some success in the process, but continuously facing legal challenges from Republican states that have halted an extensive program unveiled in 2021 and threaten to do the same with one released last year.
In the meantime, borrowers still have options if they are low-income, have paid up for a decade or two, or have worked on public service jobs, but the loan servicing panorama is complex and plagued by lax regulations and bad actors.
A panel of experts explain what programs are still on the books, which ones have been stopped or threatened, and the future avenues for college affordability and equity.
