‘Student loan forgiveness is a pipedream': 8 borrowers on resuming federal payments

Washington Post

02-05-2025

With the Trump administration set to restart student loan repayments on May 5, we asked readers affected by the five-year pause in debt collection and interest accrual to tell us what the change in policy means to them. Here are some of those answers:
A tough road ahead
My partner is the primary borrower for his student loans. Because of a change in majors that set him back in getting his degree, he was left with more than $160,000 in student loan debt.
He graduated the same year that the covid-19 pandemic started, and all his federal payments were placed in interest-free forbearance. That said, much of his total loan cost came from either Parent Plus loans (which his parents no longer wanted on their credit) or private loans.
The forbearance and, subsequently, the Save program implemented by the Biden administration helped us manage his loan burden. It allowed him to refinance all the Parent Plus debt in his name and focus on paying off a significant portion of these debts. He has since paid off more than $60,000 over the past five years.
We are now awaiting the end of interest-free forbearance, at which point we will likely start another income-based repayment plan on his federal loans while he continues to put most of his money toward his private loans. We're not sure what the projected payment for his federal loans will be, but the interest that will accrue worries us. We will have to cut back. I imagine others likely feel the same as us — with inflation and fears of tariffs further exacerbating the rising costs of goods, we're facing a tough road ahead.
If the past five years have taught us anything, it's that student loan forgiveness is a pipe dream. Even so, the loan programs that the Biden administration put in place provided a much needed reprieve. It allowed us to work on building a financially independent household and prioritize our other debts. We will continue working hard to make that possible.
Trevor Walsh, Arlington, Ohio
Honor your obligations
I pay my daughter's student loans. I watched for years as Democrats tried to put in place a better student loan repayment program. They never could get their act together, so I was always skeptical that student loans would actually be forgiven. I continued paying through the entire Biden administration.
It's no surprise that the Trump administration is restarting collections. It's also no problem because I've been paying every month, which is what I agreed to do when I signed up to be my daughter's co-signer. This is what it means to honor your obligations.
Bryan Ponnwitz, Fletcher, Vermont
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Impossible burdens
During the pause in collection during the pandemic, I paid as much as I could toward student loan principles that carried the highest interest rates. Those payments add up to more than I borrowed, yet, despite paying on time and utilizing government loan repayment options, I still owe more than the original amount. This is due to predatory rates of interest federal lenders offer to students and their families — rates that are higher than those charged by private lenders.
Rates for student loans should be fixed and low. Perhaps they should also vary based on societal need, incentivizing people to seek educations in fields where workers are badly needed. Additionally, the benefits of trade school should be emphasized more.
Student loan debt is crippling my generation and affecting our ability to buy homes and contribute to our local economies. It impacts how many children we can have and how we are (not) able to care for our aging relatives. The impact of this debt will be impossible for many to recover from. Between this and rising housing prices, food costs, child-care costs, increasing rates of chronic disease and medical bills, my generation is drowning.
Yes, we each should repay what we owe — that's our burden. However, the disastrous lending structure is damaging the potential of all of our futures and needs to be reformed.
Jeanne Scott, Dennis, Massachusetts
Out of the frying pan ...
My student loan debt started out at $80,000. My balance has since ballooned to $150,000. I have no way to repay back such a huge amount, though I would love to be able to afford my payment of $1,100 per month.
I am 60 years old. I took out a student loan to be able to return to school and escape an abusive marriage after being a stay-at-home mother for years. Now I feel like I am being abused by my own government in the form of loan sharklike interest rates.
I am terrified I might never be able to retire. If I were to default, my social security check would be garnished. So much for my golden years.
Cheryl Cosey, Austell, Georgia
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Stuck in a mess
I haven't made a single loan payment yet, and I essentially can't — even though I want to start.
I finished my undergraduate program in 2020 with all of my loans in pandemic forbearance. My gap year with AmeriCorps and my graduate degree education extended my grace period for another three years.
I finished grad school right around when the Biden administration's Save plan opened for enrollment. Of course, I signed up. I work in public service, and I had hoped to make payments on an income-driven repayment plan to count toward the Public Service Loan Forgiveness Program, which requires 10 years of payments to qualify. (Nine if I can get my AmeriCorps award to count for its promised 12 payments, but with how things are going between them and the government, who knows?)
Now I'm stuck in forbearance. I can't make PSLF-eligible payments because I can't make Save payments. For a time, I couldn't even switch to a different income-driven plan because the Education Department wasn't processing applications. (That has since changed, so we'll see.)
What would the resumption of the requirement to make federal payments do to me without an alternative option? I have no clue. I can only anticipate the worst because this administration has done nothing to suggest it has students' or public servants' interests in mind.
Emily Mains, Binghamton, New York
What borrowers don't understand
I was one of the fortunate ones who had student loans forgiven through the Public Service Loan Forgiveness program. I teach in a 'Chapter 766' school in Massachusetts (all our students are on individualized education programs), so I met all of the requirements for forgiveness.
Mind you, I started repaying my loans for graduate school in 2000 and, despite paying extra each month, still owed about $10,000 after 20-plus years. So many people are upset about the idea of loan forgiveness, but they don't realize folks like me paid off our initial loan amounts years ago; the only reason I was still paying was because of compounded interest. Banks have it turned around; my payment went to interest first, then to principal. As a young student, I did not understand this at all.
My spouse, on the other hand, paid off his student loans years ago. However, he was then required to get a master's degree so he could continue to teach in Massachusetts. He graduated in 2019, and we made those loan payments until the pause. When the payments were scheduled to start again in October, I decided to wait and see if President Joe Biden would forgive more loans for public school teachers. When Donald Trump replaced him, I knew we would not receive any more help from the government.
K. Stackow, Belchertown, Massachusetts
All debt, no point
I've been holding off on paying ever since the student loan pause. We live paycheck to paycheck, and my husband already pays $400 per month on his private student loans, so any dollar we can save by holding off on paying is crucial.
I enrolled in the Biden administration's Save plan, which would cap my payments at around $50 a month, but now I don't know what's going to happen with that. I'm anxious about how much we're going to have to start paying.
I would have never gone to college had I known that the student loan situation was going to be this chaotic. I was never taught how much of a burden these loans could impose on my ability to take out other loans for things such as a mortgage or a car. I'm already not working a job in the field I studied, so it's not like my education really had any benefit at this point.
Brigit McArdle, Chicago
Like giving a teen a mortgage
The nonaccrual of federal interest during the covid-19 pandemic was the best thing anybody with student loans could have asked for. I continued paying throughout the five years.
If I did it over again, though, I would not take out student loans. It's like giving a teenager a mortgage. Even though I paid off my graduate degree and have contributed large chunks to my undergraduate loans, I am still making payments after more than 20 years. I even consolidated my loans to a 10-year plan, and I have never missed a payment, yet here I am. It feels like I've been lied to.
These loans are a dark cloud over my head, and I'll be so glad when they're gone.
Catherine Harris, Decatur, Texas