Student Loan Reflection

Two major news stories about student loans this week caught my attention.  The first was the headline grabbing story that federal student loan debt has officially crossed the $1 trillion marker and in fact hit $1.2 trillion in May of this year.  The other headline is a much more immediate in its effect on students and that is the doubling of federal student loan interest rates from 3.4% to 6.8% on July 1.  As an individual with student loans, these headlines are not simply news stories but real events that will affect my life and the lives of millions of other millennials.  This got me thinking about a previous post I had talking about the difficulty of discharging student loans in bankruptcy proceedings and a lower appeals court decision which possibly gave new hope to those drowning in debt.

In my earlier post I discussed how the 9th Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals ruling will help students discharge their loans in bankruptcy proceedings, something that was literally impossible before this ruling.  However, I also edited a wikipedia page on student loans and wanted to check in to see if my edited paragraph was still there or had been changed.  This was the first time I had ever changed something on wikipedia and it was exciting to find out that the paragraph I added was still there and unaltered! 

In case you were curious, here is the original paragraph I posted to wikipedia:

U.S. Federal student loans and some private student loans can be discharged in bankruptcy only with a showing of "undue hardship." In contrast to credit card debt, which often can be discharged through bankruptcy proceedings,^{[27][28][29][30]} this option is not generally available for educational loan debt.^[31][32][33] Additionally, those seeking to discharge their student loan debt must initiate an adversary proceeding, a separate lawsuit within the bankruptcy case where they illustrate the required undue hardship^[34]. Many borrowers cannot afford to retain an attorney or the additional litigation costs associated with an adversary proceeding, let alone a bankruptcy case. Further complicating matters, the undue hardship standard varies from jurisdiction to jurisdiction, but is generally difficult to meet, making student loans practically non-dischargeable through bankruptcy. In most circuits discharge depends on meeting three prongs in the Brunner test:^[35]

My changes are the different colored text and are still there.  The whole purpose of my post however, was to provide an update on something that affects millions of lives across the country. It is up to our current elected officials in Washington, D.C. to provide relief and fix the self inflicted wound of doubling interest rates, which will stifle college aspirations for millions.