The student loan pause has been extended

The Biden administration also announced a reset for borrowers in default. [View this email online]( [NPR Education]( April 10, 2022 This week, we looked at student loans, an NCAA investigation into corruption and students going to school during a war. Plus, a look at the best college podcast. --------------------------------------------------------------- Chip Somodevilla/Getty Images Happy Sunday, The Biden administration announced Wednesday that it is again extending the moratorium on federal student loan payments, interest and collections, this time until summer's end, Aug. 31. The U.S. Department of Education also unveiled a plan to reset the roughly 7 million borrowers who are in default, using the pandemic pause to restore their accounts to good standing. "We are still recovering from the pandemic and the unprecedented economic disruption it caused," President Biden said in a statement announcing the extension. "If loan payments were to resume on schedule in May, analysis of recent data from the Federal Reserve suggests that millions of student loan borrowers would face significant economic hardship, and delinquencies and defaults could threaten Americans' financial stability." The loan repayment freeze began in March 2020, at the beginning of the pandemic, and will now last at least two and a half years – an unprecedented respite in the financial lives of tens of millions of borrowers. According to the latest department data, 500,000 federal student loan borrowers – out of more than 43 million – have been repaying their loans during the pause. This is the seventh time the moratorium has been extended by the Trump and Biden administrations, according to the Education Department's Office of Federal Student Aid. The latest extension comes after reports of a department email to loan servicers telling them not to communicate with borrowers about the previous repayment deadline, May 1. In an interview that aired on NPR's All Things Considered Wednesday, Education Secretary Miguel Cardona spoke about the Biden Administration's announcement. "We know so many of our borrowers have fallen on hard times, even before the pandemic. They maybe had delinquent payments or they'd have to default on their loans. And what we want to do is make sure they have a fresh start. We want to make sure that their loans are put in good standing again," Education Secretary Miguel Cardona told NPR. The extension, while expected, comes with at least one surprise: It's shorter than many Democrats had hoped for. Sen. Patty Murray (D-Wash.), chair of the Senate's education committee, tweeted earlier this week that the payment pause "has got to be extended until at least 2023. With rising costs and still building back from the pandemic, this is not the time to make borrowers start paying again." News of the extension through August also drew a tepid response from borrower advocates. "The Biden Administration should absolutely extend the payment pause," Abby Shafroth of the National Consumer Law Center said in a statement. "But the pause is a temporary measure that should be in service of a longer-term fix, or borrowers may be back in the same crunch four months from now." This shorter extension also puts Biden in the precarious political position of asking millions of voters to resume loan payments on the eve of November's midterm elections – unless he does what many experts expect him to do and simply issues another extension over the summer. "The @WhiteHouse should just be honest about what they're doing and announce they'll turn the loan portfolio on after Election Day," tweeted Trump's former education secretary, Betsy DeVos. The extension is deeply unpopular with Biden's Republican critics, who have pointed out that the pause on interest and payments has cost the federal government at least $95 billion. [Read more here](. — [Cory Turner]( Correspondent, NPR Ed Now, let’s get into some news… As Kansas celebrates a basketball victory, a years-long NCAA investigation hangs over the school. The Kansas Jayhawks just hoisted the National Championship trophy above their heads, but that excitement could be short-lived as an NCAA investigation into corruption in college basketball may be near its conclusion. The University of Kansas was included in a list of schools as part of a 2017 FBI case alleging bribes were paid to lure top recruits to elite programs. [Read more here](. — Jeff Dean, Military Veterans in Journalism Intern --------------------------------------------------------------- Newsletter continues after sponsor message --------------------------------------------------------------- Millions of Ukrainian children are still in school despite the war. Safety, housing, food, and medical care are the top priorities, but a surprising number of families are also keeping up with school. When the war started, Ukraine's Ministry of Education declared a two-week school holiday. But since then, teaching has resumed remotely. [Read more here](. — [Anya Kamenetz]( Correspondent, NPR Ed The child tax credit was a lifeline. Now some families are falling back into poverty. The payments from the child tax credit were closing the gaps on child hunger and poverty across America. And in the months since they ended, there's evidence that the families who needed the money the most have already slipped back into financial trouble. The impact of stopping the monthly payments was devastatingly swift, according to an assessment from the Columbia Center on Poverty and Social Policy. It estimated that 3.7 million children were kept out of poverty in December when the last child tax credit payment was made. In January, the first month without the deposits, 3.7 million children fell into poverty. [Read more here](. — Sarah McCammon, National Desk, Lauren Hodges, Producer, All Things Considered & Sarah Handel, Editor, All Things Considered And before you go, the best college podcast is… It’s the moment you’ve all been waiting for. And without further ado…the winner of this year’s college podcast challenge is Aria Young, a New York University sophomore and creator extraordinaire of What’s In a Name? Congratulations, Aria! As the winner of this year’s challenge, her story will be told tomorrow on Morning Edition – don’t forget to tune in through your local member station or our app, NPR One. The digital story of her podcast-creating journey will be up tomorrow on our [landing page](. On top of that, she’ll receive a $5,000 scholarship. Every finalist for this year’s competition will be receiving $500 in scholarships each. Read their stories [here]( and subscribe to our [Student Podcast Challenge newsletter here](. 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