Asking Everyone's Rich Uncle to Pay for School

摘要

Laura Strong, a 29-year-old in suburban Chicago, owes $245,000 on student loans for the psychology Ph.D. she finished in 2013. This year, she says she hopes to earn $35,000 working part-time jobs as a therapist and yoga teacher-not enough to manage a loan payment of about $2,000 a month. But Strong isn't paying anything close to that. She's one of at least 3.8 million Americans who've qualified for federal programs that tie payments to income and eventually forgive debt for some struggling borrowers, leaving taxpayers to pick up the tab. President Obama has praised the programs for offering a lifeline to borrowers who'd otherwise default, scarring their credit. Strong pays about $100 a month on her federal loans, which she used to finance her graduate studies at Argosy University, a for-profit institution. "I wouldn't know how I would pay it back otherwise," she says.