The Biden administration is implementing a new income-driven repayment (IDR) plan for federal student loans called Saving on a Valuable Education (SAVE). The SAVE plan adds to existing IDR plans and reduces borrowers' monthly payments and shortens the time certain borrowers must repay before their debts are forgiven compared with current options.…

Earlier this year, Representative Virginia Foxx (R-NC) introduced the College Cost Reduction Act (CCRA), a bill to reform higher education grant and loan programs and to establish new accountability rules for colleges. A key part of the bill would replace the myriad income-driven repayment (IDR) plans for federal student loans, including the Biden…

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…

The Biden administration launched a new income-driven repayment (IDR) plan for federal student loans this year called Saving on a Valuable Education (SAVE). The plan cuts borrowers' monthly payments compared with current IDR plans, provides earlier loan forgiveness for smaller debts, and prevents unpaid interest from accumulating. To better…

Recent higher education accountability policies and proposals have often linked programs' or institutions' federal aid access to students' postcompletion earnings. But proposals differ regarding when to measure earnings. Policymakers may want to know how fast earnings typically grow and when in an individual's career earnings growth rates change.…

Much of the policy debate emerging from concerns over student debt has focused on the structure and operation of income-driven repayment (IDR). As the number of available IDR plans and the share of borrowers enrolling in these plans has increased, the system has become more confusing and difficult to navigate. IDR has not prevented default…

In August, the Biden administration announced a plan to forgive up to $10,000 in federal student loans for almost all borrowers, with up to an extra $10,000 for borrowers who had received Pell grants. The additional forgiveness for Pell borrowers intends to address the racial wealth gap, as Black and Hispanic students are more likely to receive…

Federal student loans help many college students access and complete postsecondary degrees that would not have been attainable otherwise. But years of well-intentioned policymaking have left the student loan system a complicated mess that is difficult for borrowers to navigate and leads to unfair and inefficient distributions of taxpayer dollars.…

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…

Evidence shows that what students study matters as much as, if not more than, where they study. Program-level measures can provide important data on student outcomes, which will allow policymakers to hold institutions and programs that receive federal funding accountable. This fact sheet highlights some of the most frequently discussed measures…

The Biden administration is pursuing two higher education policies through a series of rulemaking processes that aim to make higher education more affordable and less risky for students. One policy focuses on the system's back end by helping students repay their loans, and the other focuses on the front end by cutting off access to federal aid for…

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…

For many high school students, the cost of attending college poses a major barrier to continuing their education. Federal student aid provided through Pell grants, work study, and loans can offer students with low incomes an avenue toward receiving a postsecondary education. But for students to be eligible for federal student aid, they need to…

Policymakers have expressed increased interest in program-level higher education accountability measures as a supplement to, or in place of, institution-level metrics. But it is unclear what these measures should look like. In this report, we assess the ways program-level data could be developed to facilitate federal accountability. Evidence shows…

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…