Heidi Alexander: “in March, Congress and the President said to 43 million student loan borrowers that, because of COVID-19, your student…”

“in March, Congress and the President said to 43 million student loan borrowers that, because of COVID-19, your student loan payments will be deferred until October 1--no monthly payments for 6 months for student loan borrowers. October 1 is just around the corner. So what do we say to those 43 million student loan borrowers today? I propose that we say this: No. 1, if there is no income, there is no monthly payment. In other words, if you have a student loan, your monthly payment is zero--if you don't have any income for whatever reason. No. 2, when you do begin earning income, your monthly payment will never be more than 10 percent of your income after you deduct the necessities of life, such as the cost of housing--rent or mortgage--and food. No. 3, the same generous loan forgiveness that exists today for student loan borrowers will still exist. After 20 years of payments for undergraduate loans and 25 years of payments for graduate loans, if you still have an outstanding loan balance, your loan will be forgiven, and that will include all of the months your payment was zero because you didn't have any income. These same policies--no income, no monthly payment--will be offered to students who take out new loans in addition to these policies being offered to existing student loan borrowers. Under my proposal, new and existing student loan borrowers will be offered one other option for paying back their loans.…”