Kimberly Adams

Welcome back to Make Me Smart, where none of us is as smart as all of us.

For many federal student loan borrowers, the past few years probably felt like whiplash.

You had the Biden administration attempting to pass the sweeping student loan forgiveness and create more affordable repayment options, but most of those ended up struck down or held up in court.

As a result, many borrowers haven't had to make a payment in years.

And then the one big beautiful bill act passed last year is set to overhaul the repayment system this year.

So where we stand is a little bit confusing and it matters whether you have student loans or not.

So here to make us smart about all of this is Betsy Mayotte, founder and president of the nonprofit, the Institute of Student Loan Advisors.

Welcome to the show, Betsy.

Thank you.

So like I said, the past several years have been kind of chaotic in the world of federal financial aid.

What have you been hearing from student loan borrowers about this?

So one of the developments that's been in the news for quite a bit was this Biden era save program.

And now that that program is ending, can you tell us a bit about the program and what it means for I guess there's what, seven million borrowers still enrolled in the program?

And is this a difference between their loans being forgiven or being lower?

Like, what are they waiting on?

Who are these borrowers?

Can you talk a little bit about sort of placing this in the broader economy?

Because federal student loans are not all student loans.

But why does what's happening with this particular group of borrowers and these programs matter for the rest of us?

We need to take a quick break, but when we come back, we're going to talk more about those defaults and student loans in America.