“I feel like I went through the all the stages of grief over this yesterday,” said Betsy Mayotte, president of the Institute of Student Loan Advisors, a nonprofit that offers free loan advice and dispute resolution. “It’s unfair.”
TISLA in the News
10/13/2022
Biden’s student loan debt relief plan, explained
Betsy Mayotte, the president and founder of the Institute of Student Loan Advisors, said borrowers with high rates of default tend to have smaller amounts of debt. Amounts that will be completely forgiven by this plan.
“I’m hoping that [the plan] will really be impactful and wipe the debt away altogether from a large majority of borrowers that do have debt and no degree,” she said. “Especially if that debt is preventing them from going back to school and completing their credentials, especially if they’re already in default.”
10/13/2022
We’re still in a bear market, folks
Here’s everything we talked about today:
- “Dow closes 800 points higher after a historic one-day turnaround” from CNBC
- “Bank of England Insists Bond Buying Will End Friday” from The Wall Street Journal
- “Social Security recipients to get their biggest cost-of-living raise in over 40 years” from Marketplace
- “Eligibility for Public Service Loan Forgiveness Has Changed Temporarily. Here’s What It Means For Borrowers” from the U.S. Government Accountability Office
- Public Service Loan Forgiveness from the Institute of Student Loan Advisors
- “Scientists Just Figured Out a Way to Make Beer Taste Even Better” from Science Alert
- “I tried Be My Eyes, the popular app that pairs blind people with helpers” from The Guardian
10/06/2022
The Biden administration increases efforts to fight student loan forgiveness scams
MEG ANDERSON, BYLINE: The White House is going to cancel up to $20,000 in student loan debt for as many as 40 million borrowers. But since that relief was announced in August, the government has released very little information about the application process.
BETSY MAYOTTE: This Biden forgiveness thing is Christmas, Thanksgiving and Fourth of July all rolled into one for the scammers.
ANDERSON: Betsy Mayotte is the president of The Institute of Student Loan Advisors. She says that vacuum of information has created an opportunity. Here’s an example of a suspicious call one borrower in Texas shared with NPR.
10/01/2022
College costs keep snowballing despite Biden’s efforts to ease student debt burden
“They’ve really done things to address some of the most vulnerable borrowers out there, and I don’t want to take any of that away from them, but the frustrating part is the problem isn’t student loans — student loans is a symptom. The problem is the cost of higher education,” said Betsy Mayotte, president of The Institute of Student Loan Advisors. “So what’s been frustrating me is that there hasn’t been a more robust conversation about fixing the actual problem.”
09/30/2022
Some student loans no longer qualify for forgiveness. Here’s what affected borrowers need to know
The scope of student loan borrowers eligible for forgiveness has narrowed and the Biden administration says about 770,000 previously-eligible borrowers will be affected.
Here & Now‘s Celeste Headlee speaks with President of The Institute of Student Loan Advisors Betsy Mayotte about what affected borrowers should know.
09/30/2022
Biden administration narrows eligibility for student debt cancellation
She said she thinks the department felt it had to sacrifice those borrowers to save the overall program in the face of legal challenges, but that doesn’t make it feel any less unfair to those affected by the change. She, like others, had been advising some borrowers that it might not make sense to consolidate loans right away, she said. With interest rates higher than in recent years, and a deadline for consolidation that was not imminent, it didn’t seem urgent to take action.
Mayotte said she has heard from many borrowers who are extremely upset. “The last 24 hours have been some of the worst of my career,” she said. “They’re angry. They’re crying … literally crying. They feel duped. They feel taken advantage of.”