Renee Allen and her mother are about two decades apart in age and they have something in common.

My mother is in her late 50s. She is still paying off her student loans and likely could be for the rest of her life.

Allen is a law professor in Brooklyn. She finished school more than a decade ago.

And still, she owes more than $250,000 in student loans for undergrad and law school.

I am nowhere close to making a dent in mine and I'm in a position where I will be paying for the rest of my life.

So just as her mother's debt forced Allen to take out loans.

My ability to help my future children through school are limited and so the cycle then continues.

She's won a 44 million people in America with student debt. $1.6 trillion in total.

Many feel like they'll be paying it back forever.

I did receive some scholarship money and I received grant money.

I worked two jobs most of the time I was in undergrad and that still wasn't enough to make in meat.

Now members of Congress and President-Oleg Joe Biden have been talking about different plans

to help people like Renee Allen. A lot of those plans involve some amount of debt cancellation.

Just wiping away part of the money people owe. For me, student loan debt cancellation means

that the next generation have an opportunity to start with a clean slate. Something I didn't have.

Something my mom didn't have.

Consider this. While politicians say they're ready to address the student debt crisis,

they haven't agreed on how to do it. And while the numbers keep growing, that debt can weigh down

the economy. From NPR, I'm Ari Shapiro. It's Friday, November 27th.

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