What’s next for borrowers burdened by student loans? 

Millions of Americans are trying to figure out what’s next with their student loan debt, and that includes tens of thousands of Minnesotans. 

At the end of June, the U.S. Supreme Court struck down President Joe Biden’s broad loan forgiveness plan that would have erased up to $10,000 in student loan debt for most borrowers and even more for students from low-income families. By one analysis, the plan would have entirely eliminated student loan debt for more than a quarter of borrowers. 

Meanwhile, the long pause on loan payments dating to the start of the COVID-19 pandemic is finally expiring. It had renewed several times and allowed most borrowers to pause repaying their college debt without a penalty.

In Minnesota over the last few years, two third of graduates with a four-year degree took out loans and owed an average of $25,000. Graduates of for profit private colleges were more likely to take out loans — almost 90 percent — and owed an average of $30,000.

MPR News host Angela Davis talks with a financial counselor who advises borrowers with college debt about their options and with a public policy researcher who focuses on the impact of debt on Black borrowers.

Guests 

• Kim Miller is a certified financial counselor with LSS Financial Counseling, a division of Lutheran Social Service of Minnesota. The non-profit organization provides free student loan debt counseling, including Miller’s recent blog post “Get Ready for Student Loan Repayments Resuming.”

• Fenaba Addo is an associate professor of public policy at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill and co-author of “A Dream Defaulted: The Student Loan Crisis Among Black Borrowers.” She researches debt and social mobility, and specifically the causes and impact of student loan debt on Black families.

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Use the audio player above to listen to the full conversation.