March 11, 2022
The Voices Silenced by Student Debt
By Lisa Herforth-Hebbert
Payments are set to restart for millions of people who are still struggling to recover from the pandemic. This series brings their stories directly into the spotlight.
By Vivek Kakar
Thanks to a moratorium on payments in effect during the Covid pandemic, most student loan borrowers haven’t had to make a payment for over two years. But pandemic relief is only a temporary fix. On May 1, payments are set to restart for millions of people who are still struggling to recover from the pandemic. Many are facing anxiety, fear, and financial ruin at the possibility of drowning under student loan debt.
Pandemic relief allowed people to put food on the table, pay rent, and afford health care and medicine during the health crisis. Others were able to get ahead for the first time; they started small businesses, purchased homes, and saved for retirement. A world without student debt changed their lives for the better, and there is now an unprecedented movement to permanently cancel student debt.
