Big changes could be coming for student loan borrowers
When Democratic presidential candidates Bernie Sanders and Elizabeth Warren dropped out of the race, it seemed that proposals to tackle student loan debt would go away, too.
They haven’t. Between the impact of the
coronavirus pandemic and a growing sense that there’s something broken with how the U.S. finances higher education, plans to deliver relief to borrowers are taking off.
It’s unclear if Republicans in the Senate will support that long of a reprieve, said Mark Kantrowitz, a higher education expert. “But, given that 2020 college graduates are graduating into the worst job market ever, I think an extension is likely,” he said.
Meanwhile, new federal student loans will come with historic-low interest rates – 2.75% for those disbursed after July 2020. Currently, rates are between 4% and 6%.
“In the private student loan market, the most vulnerable borrowers are going to be the hardest hit,” said Seth Frotman, executive director of the Student Borrower Protection Center.
Calls for widespread student loan forgiveness are mounting.
The HEROES Act would cancel $10,000 in student debt for
economically distressed borrowers.
Democratic presidential candidate
Joe Biden has said that he would forgive undergraduate federal student loan debt for borrowers who attended public colleges.
Under the HEROES Act, people with private student loans would also
get their monthly loan payments covered by the government until September 2021 and $10,000 of their debt forgiven.
Biden also joins a growing chorus of Republican and Democratic policymakers who want to allow student loan borrowers to discharge their debt in bankruptcy. Borrowers now have to exhibit a “
certainty of hopelessness” to walk away from their student debt in court.
Federal Reserve Chairman Jerome Powell has said he can’t think of a reason why the loans are treated differently than other types of debt in bankruptcy.
Student loan borrowers deserve a fresh start, Kantrowitz said.
“Credit cards can be discharged, but not student loans?” he said.
Consumer advocates have expressed concern over the fact that private student loan borrowers haven’t received any relief during the pandemic, save for some accommodations by individual lenders. The $130 billion student loan market is up more than 70% over the last 10 years, and has recently outpaced the growth of auto loans, credit cards and mortgages.
The U.S. Department of Education already has said that due to the public health crisis, federal student loan borrowers don’t need to make payments on their loans until at least October. And during that time, no interest will accrue.
House Democrats, in their $3 trillion HEROES Act, are pushing to extend that break for another year, until Sept. 30, 2021.
