CORPUS CHRISTI, Texas — Payments on federal student loans that were paused at the start of the pandemic will be reinstated at the end of August, with those bills coming due the following month.
Dr. Jonathan Cortez, a professor at the University of Texas at Austin told Action 10 News the pause gave him some relief but now he's facing a new reality.
“I will have to be paying in a larger amount to ensure I don’t default on those loans,” Cortez said.
While payments stopped over the last three years, Cortez said he expected more from President Biden.
"It's like we're chasing a carrot and that's the frustrating part," Cortez said. "It's not that we have to pay them back because that's our responsibility when we took out the loan. The frustrating part is being teased for a lack of a better word.”
Cortez was talking about student loan forgiveness.
“The only thing we know for sure is that because of the compromise that came with the debt ceiling is that the repayment pause has to stop,” Andy Benoit said.
Benoit, the vice president of Enrollment Management at the Island University said federally assured servicers should give borrowers more information, like how to set up payment plans.
“All of that will be timed according to normal processes. We will essentially go back to normal, to what we were doing before the pause,” Benoit said.
Still, concerns are looming. As inflation continues to take a toll on consumers, Cortez thinks about how this will impact future generations.
“Higher education is getting more expensive therefore we’ll have to take out more student loans," Cortez said. "How can we support our youth who are seeking further learning without digging themselves into a hole?”
In the meantime, student loan forgiveness is still being discussed in Supreme Court. Biden's overall plan to forgive federal student debt is estimated to cost over $400 billion.
