The US Supreme Court will hear arguments next month about whether President Biden has the authority to forgive up to $20,000 in student debt for millions of borrowers. Part of the Biden administration's legal argument rests on the claim that borrowers as a group were made worse off financially by the pandemic. Urban Institute's analysis indicates…

The new student loan repayment plan formally proposed by the Biden administration would let borrowers make lower payments and have remaining loans forgiven sooner than under current plans. Under the proposed income-driven repayment (IDR) plan, most undergraduate borrowers with typical debt levels--and nearly 90 percent of those with certificates…

Research finds a weak causal relationship between student loan debt and homeownership. Still, less access to generational wealth among young Black adults is a root cause of higher student debt burden and a substantial barrier to accessing homeownership. The inability to repay debt, or to build wealth through homeownership, in turn, contributes to…

Policymakers enacted a series of reforms in the mid-2000s that significantly expanded benefits in the federal student loan program for students pursuing graduate degrees. These reforms allow students to borrow up to the full cost of attendance for their degrees and use an Income-Driven Repayment (IDR) program that offers loan forgiveness after 20…

When the Obama administration implemented the first gainful employment (GE) rule in 2014 to protect students from education credentials that lead to unaffordable debts, virtually all programs at public institutions passed the test. The Biden administration is developing its own GE rule after the Trump administration repealed the Obama-era rule. A…

The Biden administration is developing regulations around gainful employment (GE) that would protect students from career-oriented college programs that don't adequately serve their students. A draft GE rule released earlier this year would require that graduates of certificate programs at public and nonprofit colleges and nearly all programs at…

Racial inequities in higher education and the labor market have led to disparate outcomes in student loan borrowing and repayment by race, with Black borrowers holding more student debt and being more likely to default on it compared with white borrowers. Student loan default, which helps perpetuate the racial wealth gap by disproportionately…

This brief examines the impact of using a system based on multiple metrics that requires institutions to pass three out of four thresholds for student loan default, student loan repayment, program completion, and postcollege earnings. Currently, a very high loan default rate is the only student outcome that disqualifies institutions from the…