Mizzou economics professor and students discuss the U.S. Department of Education hints at student loan payment pause extending

COLUMBIA, Mo. (KMIZ)

Federal student loan payments are set to resume in May after being paused for more than two years because of the pandemic, but guidance from the U.S. Department of Education seems to hint at the pause being extended.

 The department recently emailed guidance to the companies that manage its $1.6 trillion student loan portfolio saying, "Don't reach out to borrowers about that May 1 deadline."

The email did not explain why servicers should go quiet about the deadline, nor did it say the deadline would change. However, the order suggests the Biden administration is considering another extension of the student loan payment freeze.

Mizzou economics professor, Joseph Haslag said the pause being extended would not have impacts right away across the nation. "Immediate, recognizable identifiable impacts are almost zero right now because we've already been in this situation. The bigger question is whether there's going to be a cancellation of the debt and how widespread that cancellation will be," Haslag said.

Biden has previously promised to offer tuition-free community college to students across the country. 

Haslag says he fears what that would mean for higher education. "If the federal government decided to make tuition-free, basically what we'd be doing is we'd be lowering the average quality of higher education that's going to be offered to the students."

You begin repaying most federal student loans six months after you leave college, but some Mizzou students say they're already thinking about when their loans will hit.

Junior student, Hank Pelter, said he will be leaving college with nearly $25,000 worth of debt and says a lot of people are in the same boat or worse.

"Some of my friends are taking out loans right now and extra loans just to pay rent, so yeah everyone's a little nervous right now and everyone's just trying to get jobs out of school," Pelter said.

Senior, Tucker Jones, says the effects of the pandemic are not over. "I am leaving school currently with no debt and I'm still stressed out about money and how it's going to work out so imagining adding on student loan debts on top of that would be really tough."

Freshman, Iris Heng, says she doesn't have a lot of debt and plans to rack up a lot of debt in her next few years of college. "We're college kids, it's not like I make six figures a year so I know it would definitely benefit me if I could get it pushed off a little."

Freshman, Marissa Moore, says a lot of students hope to continue their education past a four-year bachelor's degree, which would mean it would take longer for debt to be paid off.

"I have a high school teacher that has taught for 40 years and she just paid off her student loans a year ago," Moore said.

Earlier this month, White House Chief of Staff Ron Klain hinted that the pause could be extended.

The president has made previous promises to forgive $10,000 in student loan debt per borrower but has yet to do so, and is now facing an increasing amount of pressure from the left to follow through.

Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer (D-N.Y.) tweeted March 4 in response to Klain’s comments that “today would be a great day for President Biden and Vice President Harris to #CancelStudentDebt."