The Supreme Court just dropped a major decision about student loans. In the US, 1 in 5 of us have student debt and on average, each of us owes about $36,000. When you look at that number, it’s tempting to see it as a momentary snapshot of an ever diminishing burden we diligently repay month after month until one day soon…disappears altogether. Except for so, so many of us, that’s not what happens. We grow older and we keep making our payments. But now rent is going up and so is the co-pay at the doctor’s while our paychecks stay the same. Because of interest, our loan balance keeps growing even as we pay it down, which is why it was such a big deal last summer when the Department of Education said it planned to forgive $10,000 in student debt for anyone making less than $125k a year. For about a third of us, that would completely wipe out our debt and we could finally start thinking about things like buying a house or having a kid or starting a business.
But on Friday, the conservative majority on the Supreme Court said no, that debt needs to be paid. Starting in September, our loans will start accruing interest and in October payments will be due. And we’ll go back to trying to balance the scales.