The economic challenges from the pandemic have drawn added attention to student loan debt relief. There are various approaches to address the $1.7 trillion of national student loan debt or reduce loan default: employer-sponsored repayment, public service loan forgiveness, income-based repayment plans, deferment, refinancing, loan consolidation and in particular loan forgiveness.

What do we know about who is most affected by student loan debt and how these proposals impact their financial standing? What are the tradeoffs with these various remedies? What short, medium, and long-term impacts should we consider as borrowers, financial specialists or policymakers? The Wisconsin Coalition on Student Debt in partnership with the Center for Financial Security at the University of Wisconsin-Madison hosted an expert panel to help us understand the equity implications of these different approaches on February 9, 2021 from 12:00 to 1:30pm CT.

Panelists on the webinar included:
Nicholas Hillman, Associate Professor in the School of Education at the University of Wisconsin-Madison
Jack Porter, Policy Analyst for the National Governors Association
Kat Welbeck, Civil Rights Counsel at the Student Borrower Protection Center