(Sonal Prakash / Fourth Estate)

A legacy of bad decisions by the government has left millions of borrowers struggling

BY SONAL PRAKASH, STAFF WRITER

It’s not you, it’s the government. Policymakers are in large part to blame for the crisis currently looming over the heads of more than 40 million Americans. 

This is according to Jillian Berman, an award-winning journalist who has been reporting on student loan debt for a decade. 

“The bulk of the blame is on policymakers, both those who designed the system and those who in the decades since have continued to tweak it — instead of scrapping it for something new — even amid evidence that it’s not working for borrowers or, arguably, the government,” she said. 

Nearly half of all undergraduate students in the United States take out loans, many of whom struggle to pay them back and face a range of punitive consequences. Even for borrowers who are financially capable of paying back their loans, bureaucracy and red tape cause a challenge. 

It has unfortunately become common for borrowers to be unable to obtain clear information from their loan servicers, like when payments are due, how much payments are and whether their applications for loan relief have been processed. 

Students aren’t to blame for their decisions and the consequences — the system is. 

“A lot of borrowers are struggling in part because they’ve been historically unlucky … with college costs, unlucky with the labor market and more,” Berman said. 

That’s not all. An influx of changes to the federal student loan program has made navigating payments even more difficult. 

The Biden administration created confusion with attempts to cancel some student debt during the pandemic, and legal challenges have delayed or blocked those plans. Now, the Big Beautiful Bill under the Trump administration is causing controversy around more policy changes. 

Parent Plus loan borrowing on behalf of a child has been capped, and there are fewer repayment options available. The time required for loan forgiveness has also been extended from approximately 20 years to 30 years, prolonging the time a student is responsible for their debt and adding to their mounting stress. 

The bill even limits federal loans given to universities based on their students’ average post-graduate earnings. 

As graduate degrees become more expensive and less reliable for securing employment, Berman advised students to seriously consider the costs and benefits before deciding to take out a loan. 

Labor market behavior is a significant factor for students to consider. Students going into comparatively low-paying fields like social work or education should prioritize an affordable education. For those studying fields like public health, it may not make as much sense to pursue a master’s degree as it did in the past.

While students may feel that they alone bear the burden of debt, words like Berman’s remind us that it is a crisis evolved through history and policies that have brought us to the state of the current system. 

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