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Student Loan Interest Elimination Act Gets Second Push as Defaults Hit $233 Billion Aug 11, 2026

Show notes

Sen. Peter Welch (D-Vt.) and Rep. Joe Courtney (D-Conn.) held a press conference on Capitol Hill last week urging Congress to take up the Student Loan Interest Elimination Act (PDF File), which would set the rate on every existing and future federal student loan to 0%.

The press conference marks the lawmakers' second attempt in 2026 to move the bill. Welch introduced S. 4169 in the Senate and Courtney introduced H.R. 8045 in the House back on March 24, 2026, and neither version has advanced out of committee in the four months since. We covered that introduction when it happened.

The renewed push arrives as federal default numbers reach levels the system has never recorded before.

Howard University Readmits 200 Of 502 Unenrolled Freshmen After Backlash Aug 10, 2026

Show notes

Howard University unenrolled 502 incoming freshmen on July 22, weeks before move-in. It has since readmitted more than 200 of them — a roughly 40% reversal of its own decisions. That number alone tells you the university got this wrong. These are families who had already committed to a school where the cost of attendance runs past $66,000 a year.

The handling of this entire saga was worse than the decision. Students learned by email that they had lost seats they had spent years earning. Families could not get through by phone. The deadline Howard enforced does not appear on its public-facing pages, and the university's explanation has changed five times in nine days. For most families, paying the college bill is already the most confusing part of the process without a school moving the target.

There is also a second thing that is true at the same time, and it matters for every family reading this: some of these students did miss real requirements, and checking your student account is your job. Knowing how to read your financial aid award letter (and what it does and doesn't guarantee) is part of that. Both things belong in this story.

You Insure the Phone, the Car, and the Spring Break Trip. Why Not the $30,000 Tuition Bill? Aug 08, 2026

Show notes

Think about everything your family pays to protect. The phone gets a protection plan at checkout. The car carries full coverage at an average of $2,237 a year, according to Insurify. Even the spring break trip gets travel insurance, which Forbes puts at 4% to 6% of the trip cost.

Then tuition comes due (for many families, the largest single payment they ever make) and it goes out the door with no protection at all. If the semester falls apart in week six because of mononucleosis, a concussion, or a mental health crisis, most families discover the refund policy the hard way: there isn't one.

Waiting On Biden’s Student Loan Forgiveness Cost Borrowers Up To 43%, NBER Finds Aug 07, 2026

Show notes

Borrowers who believed the student loan payment pause would keep getting extended (or that their debt would be forgiven outright) cut their payments, spent more, and are now more likely to be delinquent, according to a new National Bureau of Economic Research working paper.

Economists surveyed borrowers about their expectations during the pause and the 2022 forgiveness announcement, then linked those responses to credit bureau, employment, and spending data.

The key finding: policy uncertainty itself changed borrower behavior, and the costs are still showing up in student loan debt statistics today.

SoFi’s SEC Filing Says Its Private Student Loans Can Be Discharged in Bankruptcy Aug 06, 2026

Show notes

SoFi Technologies told federal securities regulators that its private student loans can be wiped out in bankruptcy under certain conditions, a quiet admission that cuts against one of the most repeated lines in personal finance.

The disclosure sits in SoFi's annual report (a Form 10-K filed with the SEC) for the fiscal year ending December 31, 2025. In the Risk Factors section, the company warns investors that its "private education loans may be discharged in bankruptcy in certain situations," including when a court finds the debt is not a qualified education loan or that repayment would cause undue hardship. SoFi adds that a private loan can also be discharged if the borrower dies or becomes disabled.

MOHELA Glitch Hits Student Loan Borrowers With False Past-Due Notices Aug 05, 2026

Show notes

Student loan borrowers serviced by MOHELA spent this weekend staring at delinquency notices they say should not exist. Accounts that showed $0 due and active SAVE forbearance on Friday flipped to past-due balances ranging from roughly $2,000 to more than $6,700, with some borrowers marked as many as 12 months behind.

MOHELA's phone lines are closed on weekends, leaving affected borrowers with no way to reach a human until Monday. The company is one of five servicers handling the federal loan portfolio.

Department of Education Tells IDR Applicants To Reapply After Payment Error Aug 04, 2026

Show notes

Federal student loan borrowers are reporting a new email from the Department of Education telling them their income-driven repayment application produced an incorrect monthly payment because of an error and that they have to submit an entirely new IDR application to fix it.

The email lands in the middle of the tightest deadline window borrowers have faced in years. The Department began sending 90-day notices to more than seven million SAVE plan borrowers on July 1, which puts the decision deadline for the first wave of them at September 29. Anyone forced to reapply is losing days they don't have.

Seniors With Defaulted Student Loans Could Lose Over $2,000 A Year In Benefits Aug 03, 2026

Show notes

Senator Elizabeth Warren pressed Deputy Treasury Secretary nominee Francis Brooke at a Senate Finance Committee hearing over whether the Treasury Department will resume garnishing Social Security benefits for seniors with defaulted student loans.

In the exchange, Brooke could not say how many borrowers are in default and declined to commit to keeping the current pause on Social Security offsets in place.

Ninth Circuit Rejects Education Department’s Bid To Delay Loan Forgiveness Aug 01, 2026

Show notes

The U.S. Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit unanimously rejected (PDF File) the Department of Education's appeal to delay student loan relief for more than 170,000 borrowers under the Sweet v. McMahon borrower defense settlement, affirming the district court's ruling on July 17, 2026.

The judges found the Department failed to show the "changed circumstances" legally required to modify a settlement it agreed to in 2022 and said the agency knew exactly what it was signing up for.

Millions Leaving SAVE Could Still Owe $0 Per Month — But Most Haven’t Run The Numbers Jul 31, 2026

Show notes

More than 7 million student loan borrowers are being pushed off the SAVE plan in the next few months, and for many, the anxiety is real: after nearly two years of forbearance, they're bracing for a monthly bill they fear they can't afford.

But we've been seeing something interesting in our comments on social media - borrowers are surprised that they can still secure a $0 monthly payment on IBR.

That makes sense. If historical patterns hold, at least 3 million of these borrowers would still qualify for a $0 monthly payment under Income-Based Repayment (IBR). They just haven't run the numbers yet. That's why borrowers need to use a Student Loan Calculator and see what their expected payments would be.

The Department of Education began notifying enrolled borrowers on July 1 that they have 90 days to choose a new repayment plan. Borrowers who don't move in time will be moved into a new plan automatically. That deadline has created a scramble among borrowers who, in some cases, have not made a payment since March 2020.

Here's what borrowers might be missing about still having a $0 monthly payment.

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