The coronavirus pandemic has made it harder for student loan borrowers to make payments on debt that totals $1.67 trillion nationally. With students graduating into what some experts call the worst job market in U.S. history, Congress has offered federal student loan rate reductions and interest-free payment pauses — although these are set to expire Dec. 31 without additional action. As of early August, with a COVID-19 surge occurring in many states, many students considering college this fall don’t know whether schools will open in-person, virtually or at all, and some may postpone enrollment. Some students have sued colleges for allegedly failing to provide adequate tuition and fees refunds after switching to online-only learning in the spring. New Trump administration rules, meanwhile, make it harder for students who believe they were defrauded by online, for-profit schools to have their loans forgiven.
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The COVID-19 pandemic that has killed more than 160,000 Americans, crashed the economy and shuttered schools has also upended college students’ futures. 1
And it has made it harder for many unemployed or underemployed student loan borrowers to make payments on their debt, which totals $1.67 trillion when all U.S. public and private student loans are combined. 2 The July unemployment rate was 10.2 percent, far above the 3.5 percent seen in February, before the virus hit full-force. 3