Supporting Students & Families
For decades, student loans have been an administrative train wreck, while reaping huge profits for unscrupulous companies. Many loans lock students and their families into huge debt at interest rates higher than market levels for mortgages. And, unlike mortgages, you can’t refinance student loans. Some loan servicers collect money from borrowers who do not owe anything, giving false information to borrowers, and advising deferment without explaining the consequences. Most students cannot access their loan services, or must wait online or on the phone for hours to receive deliberately vague and misleading answers.
Millions of people have been denied the loan forgiveness they earned, increasing the debt burden by hundreds of millions. To make matters worse, SAVE plan borrowers have now been put into legal limbo, not knowing if, when, or how much they will need to pay on their loans. The Trump administration has threatened to privatize all student loans, which would hugely increase interest rates and fees while stripping the loans of the crucial protections they need to repay the loans without going bankrupt.
Fortunately, there are strong, bipartisan solutions to these problems that Congress could pass. One bill I would fight for is the Affordable Loans for Students Act, which would retroactively cap all current and future student loans at 2%. I’ll fight to ensure those in public receive their forgiveness after ten years. And I’ll fight for a reset of student loans to their original principal amounts and ensure that all loans, whether graduate or undergraduate, are forgiven after twenty years. Additional reforms, such as requiring greater transparency and accountability for loan servicers, would allow students to actually realize the economic benefits of their college educations.