Domino: A Blog About Student Debt

Too many public service workers with older federal loans discover they can't get PSLF because they have the wrong type of loan, while industry and ED block these borrowers from taking steps to secure relief.

Servicemembers across the country are continually being denied promised student loan relief through the Public Service Loan Forgiveness program even after a decade or more of service in uniform. This fact is a national disgrace.

Policymakers designed a system that assumed the amount of debt borrowers take on is largely immaterial, and the result is that millions of borrowers have been left to deal with the financial and psychological ramifications of decades of runaway debt.

It’s time for policymakers to weigh whether the IDR program is fulfilling its promise. And if not, it’s time to boldly rethink the design and delivery of the protections that borrowers deserve.

New evidence uncovered through a Freedom of Information Act request indicates that without bold and swift action by the Secretary of Education and President Biden, PSLF is likely to fail the vast majority of borrowers working in public service over the long term.

The student debt crisis—and the failure of PSLF to provide meaningful relief to working families—has financially devastated tens of millions of low to middle-income households. Every month, in every community across the country, working families receive a student debt bill that forces them to put off saving for their kids'...

Legal aid programs are often the first stop for Americans facing a survival crisis, but as legal aid employees have struggled with their own student loan debt, ED has failed to show up for them. ED must restore the promise of PSLF.

New evidence uncovered through a FOIA request indicates that Guaranty Agencies did not comply with Department of Education guidance directing them to stop garnishing wages from defaulted borrowers during the COVID-19 pandemic.

These workers have been under enormous strain. Unfortunately, student debt adds to that burden. But after rising to the moment, these brave men and women are faced with broken promises and denied student debt relief because of the failures of the Public Service Loan Forgiveness program.

The SBPC released a new report exposing the punishing consequences for private student loan borrowers in California who fall behind on their debts. This study, authored by Claire Johnson Raba, an SBPC fellow and a clinical teaching fellow at the University of California Irvine School of Law’s Consumer Law Clinic,...