Social Security

Nationally, student loan debt is at crisis level. The share of students behind on loan payments equals the share of homeowners in default at the peak of the housing crisis. What’s the best way to help students struggling under a huge debt burden?

Debt cancellation would grow the economy by hundreds of billions of dollars each year, creating the more prosperous future Americans hope to see when the health crisis is over. Biden’s economic recovery plan aims to put people back to work; debt cancellation would add up to 1.5 million jobs per year, as we rebuild industries decimated by the pandemic.

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.