In the News

As the COVID-19 pandemic has wreaked financial havoc on colleges, their students and student-loan borrowers, the government has stepped in to provide billions of dollars of relief. But at least one group of students is still being left out.

A new report issued this week found that several private student loan companies received substantial federal financial assistance and low-interest loans through pandemic relief programs. Some loans could ultimately be forgiven — a perk not currently extended to private student loan borrowers.

Is broad forgiveness of student loans the best way to get help to borrowers who most need it? MPR News host Kerri Miller took listener calls and talked to two consumer advocates about the student loan debt crisis.

Over the past year, more than 20 million federal student loan borrowers have been able to pause their payments to cope with pandemic-induced financial stress — a postponement that President Joe Biden recently extended through September 2021. But those who have private student loans? Not so much.

While the federal government continues to pause the collection of defaulted student loans during the coronavirus pandemic, private companies that initially followed suit are back in court.

Rohit Chopra was on the forefront of identifying how this afterthought in consumer finance was growing more significant, more nefarious, in tens of millions of people’s lives.

An explosive new report released today by the Student Borrower Protection Center and the American Federation of Teachers sheds new light on the U. S. Department of Education’s role in mismanaging the troubled Public Service Loan Forgiveness program.

A new investigatory report issued by the Student Borrower Protection Center and the American Federation of Teachers has uncovered millions of student loan servicing errors that have caused lasting financial harm to borrowers.

A report issued this week by student loan experts and advocates entitled, “Delivering on Debt Relief,” argues that the approaches — administrative action or legislation — are not mutually exclusive and will depend on the circumstances and the specific debt relief programs the Biden administration will try to reform.

A new investigation by the Student Borrower Protection Center found that members of the military are facing several obstacles when it comes to getting student loan forgiveness.