More than 40 million Americans are in debt for getting an education. The federal government holds $1.6 trillion in student loan debts, a sum roughly on par with Canada’s GDP. President Biden has canceled billions of dollars of debt, but plenty more remains. Plus, a freeze on payments, put in place by President Trump at the start of the pandemic, expires in late January. Unless Biden extends it, as he has done before, loan repayments will be coming due again. 

How did the student debt crisis in the U.S. get so bad in the first place, and what can we do about it? Persis Yu, staff attorney at the National Consumer Law Center and Director of the Center’s Student Loan Borrower Assistance Project, joins the podcast to explain the problem — and possible solutions.