Is The Student Loan Safety Net Unraveling?

KQED's Forum

KQED

Politics, News, News Commentary

4.6 • 656 Ratings

🗓️ 4 November 2025

⏱️ 53 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

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Summary

More than 350,000 Californians are now behind on their student loan payments – the highest delinquency rate for any type of debt in over two decades, according to the California Policy Lab. Experts say the missed payments are a symptom of a financial safety net that was already broken before the COVID-19 pandemic disrupted loan payments and is now further unraveling as borrowers face higher bills, fewer repayment options, inconsistent eligibility for loan forgiveness, and a very confusing system. We talk to a researcher tracking student debt, an advocate fighting on behalf of borrowers in court, and a former government official who has seen the system from the inside. Do you have a student loan? Tell us what you’ve been experiencing. Guests: Evan White, executive director, California Policy Lab, University of California-Berkeley Julie Margetta Morgan, president, The Century Foundation, independent think tank that researches public policy - Morgan served as the associate director of research, monitoring, and regulations at the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau (CFPB) Mike Pierce, executive director and co-founder, Protect Borrowers Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

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0:00.0	Support for KQED Podcasts comes from Star One Credit Union.
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0:35.2	From KQED.
0:40.5	Welcome to Forum. I'm Alexis Madrigal.
0:46.1	Student loans are one of the key ways that Americans access higher education.
0:52.1	And for decades, these kinds of loans and the programs that allowed people to repay them more easily were a widely bipartisan issue.
0:55.6	After all, a more educated workforce is considered a more productive, more skilled workforce.
1:01.1	But things have gotten weird in student loans. If you haven't been paying close attention,
1:05.6	this hour may shock you. Programs are changing, borrowers are becoming delinquent, and there are
1:10.8	more troubles ahead.
1:12.6	To begin to navigate us into these choppy waters, we're joined first by Evan White,
1:17.8	executive director of the California Policy Lab at UC Berkeley. Welcome.
1:22.4	Thank you for having me on.
1:23.9	So at the lab, you've been researching student loan delinquency rates in California.
1:29.6	Put those numbers in context for me.
1:32.5	You know, we said it at the top, 11% of loans are delinquent.
1:35.3	So how does that compare to, you know, credit card loans or something like that?
	...

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