Student Loans
What to Know About Debt Forgiveness
In the years since then presidential candidate Bernie Sanders introduced the idea of widespread debt forgiveness into the mainstream, it’s become a common rallying cry among younger, progressive voters. Here’s a breakdown of the existing options and new proposals.
Student Debt and Race
A college degree is widely considered one of the most reliable paths toward upward economic mobiilty. But for minority students, that promise often falls short. That’s in part because student debt exacerbates existing racial wealth gaps.
Long-Term Economic Effects of Student Debt
Countless surveys and news stories have documented the burden student loans place on young adults’ decisions to do everything from start a business to have a baby. Yet it’s difficult for researchers to measure whether student debt actually causes adverse financial effects for individuals. For one, there’s a limited time period of data, because today’s level of borrowing is unprecedented. But it’s also a challenging research topic.
Glossary
Consolidation
Consolidation combines multiple federal loans into a single, new loan. It does not reduce the amount of interest a borrower pays — the new loan will carry a weighted average interest rate of the existing loans — but consolidation can be useful to access certain repayment plans. If a borrower has loans from before 2011 or a Perkins loan, consolidation is necessary to access income-driven repayment or Public Service Loan Forgiveness.
Data Sources and Research
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Project on Student Debt, from The Institute for College Access & Success for annual reports on average debt-loads of four-year college graduates.
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Federal Student Loan Data Center to download macro-level federal student loan information.
Education Surges to Top Tier of Presidential Race Amid Pandemic
Journalists offer insights, story ideas on covering the schools angle
Education is not typically an issue that comes to the forefront in presidential races.
But months of an ongoing coronavirus pandemic have elevated conversations about how schools and elected officials are tackling the issue. In fact, education took a front seat in high-stakes negotiations this summer over a federal stimulus bill that has stalled.