COMIC: The year of student loans

NPR

Cory Turner, LA Johnson

December 26, 2023

Twenty-eight million Americans must now do what they haven’t had to do for more than three years: pay their federal student loans. Borrowers have endured a remarkable, chaotic run — beginning in August 2022 with President Biden’s ill-fated plan to forgive at least $10,000 per borrower and culminating in October 2023 with the resumption of monthly bills.

During that time, we’ve heard from hundreds of borrowers who’ve shared their stories of struggle and confusion, patience and relief.

Now, all those divergent stories, millions of threads in a national patchwork, converge with this unprecedented return to repayment: Sofie must make her first payment ever, while Kurt tends a spreadsheet that says he’s been in repayment for nearly 20 years. Carlos is hoping he can get into a new repayment plan so the loans he took out to help his children don’t haunt him through retirement. Juan Carlos is fighting to emerge from the shadow of default. Phoema — suddenly, shockingly — has no loans to repay.

This is the return to repayment, in the voices of a handful of borrowers we met this year, reported by Cory Turner and illustrated by LA Johnson.

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