2026-07-29T09:00:25.821Z / https://www.cnn.com/2026/07/29/politics/save-student-loan-repayments
杰西卡·奥乔亚和丈夫原本希望再生育一个孩子。但奥乔亚每月的学生贷款还款额预计在秋季将飙升至1500美元，他们正在重新考虑——甚至可能已经开始怀疑——自己能否负担得起扩大家庭的开销。
“我们没法同时承担房贷、日托费用和学生贷款，”奥乔亚说，她是南加州一名32岁的言语治疗师。“真不知道其他人是怎么做到的。”
奥乔亚在2023年为攻读硕士学位借款约15.2万美元后，加入了“节约宝贵教育支出”（SAVE）还款计划。在次年4月休产假前，她每月都按时缴纳567美元的还款额。几个月后，在联邦上诉法院暂时叫停该计划后，拜登政府治下的教育部暂停了SAVE计划借款人的还款。
和其他SAVE计划借款人一样，奥乔亚如今必须应对特朗普政府在多年法律争议后取消该计划的局面。本月早些时候，她收到了贷款服务商的通知，要求她在90天内选择新的还款计划，这将使她原本预估的还款额几乎增加两倍。
当时共有超过750万人 enrolled in SAVE计划，该计划是最优惠的收入驱动型还款计划。它大幅降低了月还款额——许多借款人甚至只需支付0美元——并根据贷款余额情况，最快可在10年后豁免剩余贷款。
教育部副部长尼古拉斯·肯特告诉CNN，自7月1日以来，已有超过200万借款人收到通知，要求他们选择其他还款方式。剩余借款人将在未来几周内收到通知。
SAVE计划的终止源于教育部与密苏里州去年12月达成的和解协议。密苏里州牵头了一个共和党州联盟，在法庭上辩称拜登政府未经国会批准无权设立该债务减免计划。
特朗普政府已于去年夏季恢复对借款人的贷款余额计息。
尽管大多数借款人将面临更高的月还款额，但一些人已经开始转向新的还款计划。
肯特表示，约25%的SAVE计划借款人选择了“还款援助计划（RAP）”，该计划由唐纳德·特朗普总统去年通过的《一项伟大且美好的法案》设立。借款人的月还款额将为其收入的1%至10%，具体比例取决于收入水平，但每月至少需还款10美元。还款30年后，剩余贷款余额将被豁免，该计划还包含其他多项优惠政策。
另有50%的借款人转向了“收入-based还款计划（IBR）”，这是几个原有计划之一。该选项将月还款额限制在可支配收入的10%或15%，并在还款20或25年后豁免剩余贷款余额。（7月1日后发放新贷款的借款人无法使用IBR计划。）
剩余25%的借款人选择了“收入挂钩还款计划（ICR）”或“按需还款计划（PAYE）”，但他们将不得不在2028年7月前再次更换计划，届时这些计划将被取消。
未在截止日期前选择新还款计划的借款人将被自动纳入分级标准还款计划，该计划同样由《一项伟大且美好的法案》设立。根据借款金额，这些借款人将有10至25年的时间还清贷款。
奥乔亚正在考虑RAP和IBR计划，但根据她查询的联邦学生援助计算器，她预计的月还款额将在1500至1600美元之间。
尽管她希望通过公共服务贷款豁免计划在还款10年后摆脱贷款，但如今面临的还款额上涨正迫使他们考虑一系列生活调整——包括让2岁的女儿退出舞蹈班，停止每月向她的529大学储蓄账户存入100美元，甚至可能只生一个孩子。
“这肯定意味着暂缓扩大家庭的计划，”奥乔亚谈到高额月还款额时说。“生理时钟在滴答作响……我们会不会后悔没给她生个兄弟姐妹？”
美国全国消费者法律中心学生贷款借款人援助项目主任艾比·沙夫罗特表示，收到通知后，借款人应登录studentaid.gov账户查看各类可选方案。除月还款额外，他们还应考虑还清贷款所需的年限以及总还款金额。
她还表示，借款人可以向贷款服务商申请延期还款，以便在处理高额还款账单时留出缓冲时间。
维权组织“保护借款人”的政策主任艾莎·坎乔拉·巴涅斯表示，借款人不必急于立刻做出决定。他们应该花时间研究不同的计划——尽管最终他们可能都需要支付更多费用。
“对大多数SAVE计划借款人来说，没有什么好选择，”她说，并指出选择RAP计划的SAVE借款人比例较低，这表明该方案并没有那么实惠。“他们可用的选项都要贵得多。”
现任教育部副部长肯特对此予以反驳，称存在负担得起的选择。他辩称，SAVE计划本身非法且过于慷慨，因此不能与其他收入驱动型还款计划相提并论。
他表示，《一项伟大且美好的法案》设立的两项计划满足了有高额余额的低收入借款人的需求。
此外，肯特称，美国人并不支持大规模的学生贷款减免。2024年4月的美国广播公司新闻/益普索民调显示，42%的美国人认为时任总统乔·拜登在取消学生贷款债务方面做得太多，34%的人认为做法恰当，22%的人认为做得太少。
“人们普遍认为，如果你借了贷款，就有责任偿还，”肯特说。“我们将为你提供必要的工具，让你能够以有意义的方式偿还贷款。”
南卡罗来纳州一名30多岁的女性借款人正面临新的学生贷款月还款额，按IBR计划计算约为499美元，远高于SAVE计划下的10美元。她通过本科和硕士学位贷款共欠下约4.8万美元的联邦学生贷款。
“一想到要额外掏出500美元，我就真的感到恶心，”这位要求匿名以保护自己工作的借款人说。“整整一周，我的焦虑都达到了顶点。”
此次还款额上涨之际，她和丈夫刚买了房，正在抚养两个年幼的孩子。这家人已经在讨论削减开支的办法，包括不再花钱请人修剪草坪，以及可能减少退休储蓄缴款。
“我们得砍掉这项开支，或者想想其他办法削减账单，”她说。
她还考虑通过副业多做些工作，但又担心收入增加会导致学生贷款还款额上涨，因为还款金额与收入挂钩。
“我当时想，‘哦，我得多赚点钱。’但那样的话，我的还款额可能会涨得更多，因为一切都和收入挂钩，”她说。
还有一些人还没准备好面对未来需要承担的还款额。
住在俄亥俄州哥伦布市郊外的28岁自由职业社交媒体经理麦迪逊·特雷西计划等到秋季再权衡自己的选择。她说，多年来的法院判决和政策变化让她明白，规则可能会快速变化。
特雷西最近因生活成本上涨搬去和父母同住，她说自己在7月中旬收到了贷款服务商Aidvantage的通知，要求她在10月13日前选择新的还款计划。作为2021年俄亥俄州立大学的毕业生，她背负着约3万美元的联邦学生贷款，还有一些私人学生贷款。
“现在有些事情比专注于一件可能在10月前再次变化的事情更值得我投入精力，”从未偿还过联邦学生贷款的特雷西说。“这根本不是无知，更多的是为了保护我的身心健康，也是为了保住我的理智。”
SAVE borrowers contend with skyrocketing student loan repayments
2026-07-29T09:00:25.821Z / https://www.cnn.com/2026/07/29/politics/save-student-loan-repayments
Jessica Ochoa and her husband had hoped to have another child. But with Ochoa’s monthly student loan payment expected to balloon to $1,500 in the fall, they are reconsidering when — or whether — they can afford to grow their family.
“We couldn’t have a mortgage, daycare and student loans,” said Ochoa, a 32-year-old speech-language pathologist in Southern California. “I don’t know how people do that.”
Ochoa enrolled in the Saving on a Valuable Education (SAVE) repayment plan in 2023 after borrowing about $152,000 to earn her master’s degree. She made several monthly payments of $567 until she went on maternity leave the following April. The Department of Education under the Biden administration paused SAVE borrowers’ payments a few months later after a federal appeals court temporarily halted the plan.
Like other SAVE borrowers, Ochoa must now contend with the Trump administration’s elimination of the plan after years of legal challenges. Earlier this month, she received a notice from her loan servicer giving her 90 days to choose a new repayment plan, which would nearly triple the tab she thought she would have.
More than 7.5 million people were enrolled in SAVE, which was the most generous income-driven repayment plan. It slashed monthly payments – as low as $0 for many borrowers – and provided loan forgiveness in as little as 10 years, depending on loan balances.
More than 2 million borrowers have been notified since July 1 that they must choose another repayment option, Under Secretary of Education Nicholas Kent told CNN. The rest will receive their letters in coming weeks.
The end of SAVE stems from a settlement reached in December between the Department of Education and Missouri, which led a coalition of Republican states that argued in court that the Biden administration did not have the authority to create the debt relief program without congressional approval.
The Trump administration resumed applying interest to borrowers’ balances last summer.
Some people aren’t waiting to move into new plans, even though most will face higher monthly payments.
About 25% of SAVE borrowers, Kent said, have opted for the Repayment Assistance Plan (RAP), which was created last year by President Donald Trump’s One Big Beautiful Bill Act. Borrowers’ monthly payments will be between 1% and 10% of their income, depending on their earnings — though they must pay at least $10 a month. Their remaining balances will be canceled after 30 years of payments, and the plan contains several other incentives.
Another 50% are shifting to the Income-Based Repayment Plan (IBR), one of several legacy plans. This option limits monthly payments to 10% or 15% of discretionary income and forgives remaining balances after 20 or 25 years of payments. (IBR plans are not available to borrowers who take out new loans after July 1.)
And the remaining 25% of borrowers chose the Income-Contingent Repayment Plan (ICR) or the Pay As You Earn Repayment Plan (PAYE), though they will have to switch again by July 2028 when these plans will be eliminated.
Those who don’t pick a new plan by the deadline will be enrolled in the tiered standard repayment plan, which was also created by the One Big Beautiful Bill Act. Those borrowers will have between 10 and 25 years to repay their loans, depending on the amount borrowed.
Ochoa is considering the RAP and IBR plans, but her estimated monthly payment would be between $1,500 and $1,600, according to the federal student aid calculator she checked.
Even though she’s hoping to be free of her loan after 10 years of payments through the Public Service Loan Forgiveness program, that increase the couple is facing now is forcing them to consider an array of life changes — including pulling their 2-year-old daughter out of dance classes and stopping the $100 monthly contribution to her 529 college savings account, along with potentially having only one child.
“That would definitely mean pausing any plans to grow our family,” Ochoa said of the larger monthly payment. “The biological clock is ticking … Will we regret not giving her a sibling?”
After receiving their notices, borrowers should log into their studentaid.gov accounts to look at their different options, said Abby Shafroth, director of the student loan borrower assistance project at the National Consumer Law Center. In addition to the monthly payment amount, they may want to consider how many years it will take them to pay back their loans and what the total repayment amount will be.
Borrowers may also want to ask their loan servicers for forbearance while they figure out how to handle the larger monthly tab, she said.
Borrowers also don’t have to rush into making a decision immediately, said Aissa Canchola Bañez, policy director at Protect Borrowers, an advocacy group. They should take time to do their homework on the different plans — though ultimately, they’ll likely have to pay more.
“There are no good options for most of these SAVE borrowers,” she said, noting that the smaller share of SAVE borrowers shifting to RAP plans shows that option is not as affordable. “The options that they have at their disposal are all very much more expensive.”
Kent, the current under secretary of education, pushed back, saying there are affordable choices. The SAVE plan was unlawful and overly generous, he argued, so it can’t be compared to the other income-driven repayment options.
The two plans created by the One Big Beautiful Bill Act address the needs of low-income borrowers with sizable balances, he said.
Plus, Americans do not support broad student loan forgiveness, Kent said. An April 2024 ABC News/Ipsos poll found that 42% of Americans thought then-President Joe Biden was doing too much to cancel student loan debt, with 34% saying the right amount and 22% saying too little.
“People generally believe that if you take out a loan, you are responsible for repaying it,” Kent said. “We’re going to give you the tools necessary to be able to do that in a meaningful way.”
One South Carolina resident in her early 30s is staring down a new monthly student loan tab of about $499 in an IBR plan, up from $10 under SAVE. She has about $48,000 in federal student loan debt from bachelor’s and master’s degrees.
“It made me honestly sick to my stomach to think about having to take out an extra $500,” said the borrower, who asked not to be identified to protect her job. “For a week, my anxiety was through the roof.”
The higher payment comes as she and her husband are raising two young children after recently buying a home. The family is already discussing ways to cut expenses, including no longer paying someone to mow their lawn and possibly reducing retirement contributions.
“We need to cut that out or try and think of other things, bill-wise, to cut out,” she said.
She has also considered taking on more work through her side business but worries that earning more income could increase her student loan payments because they are based on income.
“I was like, ‘Oh, I need to make more money.’ But then my payment would probably go up even more because it’s all based on income,” she said.
Others are not ready to look at what they’ll have to pay going forward.
Madison Tracy, 28, a freelance social media manager who lives outside Columbus, Ohio, plans to wait until the fall before weighing her choices. Years of court rulings and policy changes have taught her that the rules can shift quickly, she said.
Tracy, who recently moved back in with her parents as living costs climbed, said she received a notice in mid-July from her loan servicer, Aidvantage, giving her until October 13 to choose a new repayment plan. A 2021 Ohio State University graduate, she has about $30,000 in federal student loan debt, as well as private student loans.
“There’s certain things that are more worth my energy right now than focusing my energy on something that could potentially change again before October,” said Tracy, who has never made a federal student loan payment. “It’s not ignorance at all on me. It’s more of protecting my well-being and also protecting my sanity.”