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America’s Student Debt Crisis… how did we get here?
America’s student debt burden has surpassed $1.7 trillion!
IN THE NEWS:
America’s Student Debt Burden Has Become A Crisis
Early in December, I came across an article in the Wall Street Journal that I’ll sum up as such: members of Congress are well aware that the federal student loan program has saddled millions of American families with debt. But they aren’t exactly rushing to fix the problem.
Later that month, on December 22nd, President Biden extended the pause on the repayment of federal student loans by an additional 90 days through May 1st. The financial strain of the Omicron variant was the stated reason for this extension. But this moratorium had started almost two years earlier by President Trump. And according to the New York Times, the extension impacts 41 million borrowers, 27 million of which have not been making their payments since early 2020.
A Dec. 31st article in the Wall Street Journal was published with the following headline: “Why Student Debt Keeps Growing — Even When Borrowers Keep Paying”. One sobering explanation offered by the article is that most student debt payments don’t even cover the loan’s interest, hence the debt keeps on accumulating!
