In March 2020, as America shut down in response to the COVID-19 pandemic, Congress passed a law suspending federal student loan payments for six months. The payment pause ended up lasting, in effect, for four and a half years. Though well-intentioned, the pause and its repeated extensions may go down as one of the worst mistakes in the history of higher education policy.

Payments effectively resumed in October 2024. Borrowers who miss payments on their loans will now see those delinquencies reported to credit bureaus, with even more serious consequences to come. The Wall Street Journal recently reported that some borrowers who missed payments saw their credit scores plummet by 100 points or more. Borrowers are bewildered. Many say they were unaware that payments had resumed.

It isn’t difficult to understand why. Think about the last few years from the perspective of a moderately-informed borrower.

Your loan servicer suspended your payments in March 2020. You heard the pause might end, but then the federal government extended it

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