AP News53%
A wave of student loan borrowers have entered default since pandemic-era protections lapsed 63%
By Nicky Forster61% Heather Hollingsworth61%
7/20/2026, 4:13:20 AM
Keywords: Student Loan Debt Default Save, Donald Trump, Compensation And Benefits, Me State Wire, Texas, Financial Wellness, Tx State Wire, Back To School, Maine, Schools, United States Government, Jason Altmire, Lifestyle, South Carolina, Education, Business, New Mexico, Personal Finance, Puerto Rico, Coronavirus, Mississippi
BS Summary: This article contains 26 faulty reasoning types, including Appeal to Emotion, Availability Heuristic, and Confirmation Bias, with Negativity Bias as the most egregious example at 24.9% saturation with 130 hits. Analysis detected 1,051 faulty-reasoning hits from 523 analyzed words, generating a BS Score of 57.7% and a BS Rank of 63% (8,257 of 21,886 articles). This article is worse (more manipulative) than 62.30% of the article peer group.
A wave of student loan borrowers have entered default since pandemic-era protections lapsed
Defaults on student loans have surged across the United States, reaching record levels as borrowers struggle to keep up with payments.
The numbers have spiked since payments came due again following a lengthy pause intended to provide relief during the COVID-19 pandemic.
Today, around 9.5 million people — 1 in 5 federal student loan borrowers — are in default, meaning they are more than nine months behind on their payments.
While credit scores can suffer when borrowers are just a few months behind, entering default brings the possibility of more serious consequences, including garnished wages or Social Security payments.
For now, the Trump administration has held off on such involuntary collections.
Despair is on the rise, advocates say.
“Folks are struggling to make ends meet and cover all the rising costs of everything else.
The growing student loan bills are making things worse and folks are falling behind,” said Aissa Canchola Bañez, policy director for the advocacy group Protect Borrowers.
Many of the states with the most defaults are in the South
Many of the states with the highest concentrations of defaulted borrowers are in the South, an AP analysis found.
Mississippi has the nation’s highest default rate at 28.3%, and others near the top include Louisiana, Alabama, West Virginia, Oklahoma, Georgia, South Carolina and Texas.
Rounding out the 15 states with the highest default rates are Alaska, Arizona, Ohio, Indiana, Michigan, New Mexico and Nevada.
Of those states, New Mexico was the only one Republican President Donald Trump didn’t win in 2024.
“These are folks who live in states that President Trump won in the previous election,” Bañez said.
“And why I bring that up is, you know, there’s a lot of misconceptions and tropes about who student loan borrowers are, and who are the ones who are falling behind.”
She said many are “working-class folks who just cannot keep up with these bills on top of everything else.”
Meanwhile, the territory of Puerto Rico had a 30.9% default rate, higher than any of the states.
Borrowers who attended for-profit schools struggle more to repay loans
Students who attended for-profit colleges struggle more than others to pay back their loans.
Thirty-three percent of those borrowers were 90 days or more behind on their student loan payments, a rate more than double that of borrowers who attended public schools, according to data by the Office of Federal Student Aid released this year to help schools understand and identify default risks.
An association for private trade schools and career colleges is so concerned it has created a task force to reach out to students about the importance of loan repayment.
Jason Altmire, the head of the group, Career Education Colleges and Universities, said some of it can be chalked up to the pandemic.
Other borrowers are confused over the Biden administration’s failed loan forgiveness effort.
Still, he said the issue will be discussed at the association’s summer convention.
“We take it seriously,” he said.
“It’s a real problem.”
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100%flagged-word coverageAissa Canchola Bañez
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