College students and alumni may have a break on their wallets as U.S. Senator Patty Murray proposed a four-point plan to ease student loan payments.
“I’ve heard horror stories from so many people who are struggling with the system,” Sen. Murray said in her message with the Washington Post. “It’s not just an inconvenience, it’s just not working.”
Tyrese Frazier attended Southern Miss for three years until he transferred to a cheaper school, but like many students, he used student loans to pay off each semester.
The cost of the university tortured Frazier’s wallet because he misunderstood the price of student loans.
“I’m afraid that if I miss one payment, it’ll be hard to catch back up, and I’m hoping that I’ll have a stable job with a steady income to pay them back,” Frazier said. “Otherwise, I’m not quite sure how I will pay them back yet.”
Murray’s proposal works towards student loan cancellation in four steps, and students like Frazier would gain a cheaper experience for colleges.
- Students would receive a fresh start on their credit histories that student loans heavily impacted.
- Student loan repayment would match the income of the borrowers.
- Student loan forgiveness would become more accessible.
- Ultimately, student loan cancellation would move to the forefront.
“It should be easy to enroll in a sensible repayment plan, no one should end up with a monthly payment they can’t afford, and debt relief shouldn’t require making it through a gauntlet of paperwork,” Murray said to Forbes. “This is not too much to ask—so until we fix our student loan system, the student loan payment pause must continue to provide borrowers much-needed relief.”
The proposal would impact about 400,000 Mississippi students directly because the students owe an outstanding balance of over $15 billion.
According to the Southern Regional Education Board, the largest portion of families with college students in Mississippi paid about 50% of their annual income after financial aid for one year’s tuition at a four-year university.
“The cost of education became too much for me being a first generation student and supporting myself in college,”
Mississippi tuition, like the rest of the country, continues to rise, which raises the loan debt for students like Frazier and others on Southern Miss campus.
“And we’ve got to be clear-eyed that the cost of college is continuing to sky-rocket—so to truly address the root of this problem and put our students on a path to success, the Biden Administration must continue working with Congress to lower the cost of higher education and make sure it’s actually helping students get quality, high-paying jobs,” Murray said on her website.
Murray wants to extend the pause on the outstanding balance in the nation, so she and the Biden administration can implement the most effective plan for borrowers. The pause would give her and The Biden administration to craft the best plan.
Republicans oppose the plan because the pause would rely heavily on the Heroes Act of 2003, which gives the Secretary of Education power to adjust any requirement of the Higher Education Act of 1965 during a national emergency like a pandemic.
Also, Republicans look at the proposal as a waste of taxpayers’ money. With students paying less for school, taxpayers would pay more.
Sen. Patty Murray awaits a decision on the proposal, but until then, Frazier and other student loan borrowers will remain in a pause until May 1, 2022.
A decision should be made before the end of the pause, so keep an eye out for the four-point plan.For more information on the plan or the pause, visit Sen. Patty Murray’s website.
