Media Type: News Clips

12 million student-loan borrowers could benefit from Biden’s debt cancellation in the districts of the House Republicans who urged the Supreme Court to strike the relief down

Over the past few weeks, 128 House Republican lawmakers filed an amicus curiae brief to the Supreme Court ahead of oral arguments on February 28 urging it to strike down Biden’s debt relief. An analysis of the new data from advocacy group Student Borrower Protection Center (SBPC) shows that nearly 12 million student-loan borrowers are eligible for the relief, over 7 million applied or auto-enrolled, and over 4 million of them were approved…

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Income-Driven Repayment Overhaul ‘a Step Forward’

The Student Borrower Protection Center along with nearly 60 organizations representing student loan borrowers, teachers, veterans and other groups also advocated for the inclusion of Parent PLUS loans and graduate students, among other changes, in a joint comment.

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CFPB drops investigation into PayPal’s for-profit university loans

“We remain extremely concerned about the use of expensive point-of-sale credit as a form of educational financing,” said Ben Kaufman, director of research and investigations at the Student Borrower Protection Center. “We’re well aware that PayPal previously claimed it would clean up its act in this arena, and certain problems continued.”

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Student-Loan Forgiveness Risks Losing a Rationale as Biden Ends Pandemic Emergency

The difference between the mass debt cancellation plan and other pandemic economic supports can be found in the very structure of higher education finance in the U.S., Mr. Pierce said, where over 90% of student loans are issued by the federal government. “The government is the creditor here—they can decide when loans get repaid, if at all,” he said.

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Work Advice: Training debt can keep employees trapped at jobs

If you think that sounds a bit like indentured servitude, you’re not alone. These stay-or-pay deals seem like a reasonable way for employers to protect their investment in new hires and prevent costly turnover. But the real purpose of these arrangements is to use debt obligations to anchor workers in jobs they would otherwise choose to leave, according to Jonathan Harris, associate professor at Loyola Law School in Los Angeles, and a fellow…

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Way Too Much Student Loan Debt? Education Scams Could Be The Reason

Research from the Student Borrower Protection center found that for-profit schools (often hotbeds of education scams) are twice as likely to set up in majority Black and Latino communities.

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Student Loans: 5 Biggest Winners of Biden’s New IDR Plan

“The administration is really looking out for people that tried college and it didn’t work out for them,” says Mike Pierce, executive director and co-founder of the Student Borrower Protection Center.

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Student Loan Debt and Prisoners

Nearly 250,000 of the nation’s 2.3 million prisoners are burdened with student debt they cannot pay because of their imprisonment. A July 2022 joint report by the Student Borrower Protection Center and National Consumer Law Center noted that prisoners earn pennies an hour, if they are paid at all. They can’t afford postage, much less debt payments, and accessing their trust funds often takes weeks. This practically ensures late payments.

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When This Pilot Quit Her Job, Her Employer Billed Her $20,000

Fredericks filed her lawsuit with the help of Towards Justice, a legal aid group assisting workers, and the Student Borrower Protection Center, a nonprofit watchdog of the student loan industry. Attorney Mike Pierce, the center’s director, said Ameriflight’s repayment agreement is another illustration of employers trying to foist the cost of workforce training onto workers.

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Federal Student Loan System In Need of ‘Robust Interventions’

Bonnie Latreille, the FSA ombudsman and co-founder of the Student Borrower Protection Center, took over the ombudsman’s office in July 2021… Mike Pierce, executive director of the Student Borrower Protection Center, said the ombudsman’s report did a good job of highlighting the pain points in student loan policy and putting a face on the issues. “The previous [ombudsman] reports have been technical and dry and didn’t do a good job of lifting up borrowers’ voices,”…

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