Biden Extends Student Loan Freeze
Student loan forgiveness is expected to become available for all students after President Joe Biden extended the federal student loan freeze.
On January 20, Biden extended the student loan freeze until September.
“When students are attending school, they don’t have to make payments on their loans,” says Amanda Smyser, a Student Loan Specialist who has been working at Green River for about 6 years, “It’s not until 6 months after you graduate that you have to start making payments.”
While the loan freeze in itself does not do much for students currently attending Green River, it has widened the conversation about student loan forgiveness.
Student loan forgiveness was originally part of Biden’s platform when running for president in 2020, and now that he has secured the presidency, many people are waiting for him to take action.
“There is such a need right now, the economy is struggling,” says Smyser.
With the current world pandemic the job market has become strained, which makes the prospect of paying student loans after graduation quite daunting for some students.
Student loan debt has become a crisis in the United States. According to the U.S. Federal Reserve, there is $1.71 trillion total student loan debt. The average amount of loans per student is about $38,255. It can take the average person around 20 years to pay off all their student loans, without taking the pandemic into consideration.
Biden is pushing to forgive up to $10,000 of student loan debt per person, but many politicians are calling on him to allow even more.
It might take some time to make this happen, but many people suspect that it will be very soon.
“There’s enough support behind higher education changes like student loan forgiveness, that I would be really surprised if something doesn’t happen within the year,” says Smyser.
She also adds that if some form of loan forgiveness did not take place, there would definitely be some pushback. Many politicians, like Senator Elizabeth Warren, D-Mass, and Senator Chuck Schumer, D-New York, have already been putting pressure on Biden when it comes to this issue.
