Student debt is adding up, but who’s coming up short on payments?

Answer: 24%, nearly 1 out of every 4 borrowers

Questions:

• Why do you think so many people struggle to pay back their student loans even after graduating?
• Do you think having student loans changes the choices young people make, like what jobs they take or when they buy a house?
• If you were in charge, how would you balance the cost of college between students, families, and the government?

Click here for the ready-to-go slides for this Question of the Day you can use in your classroom.

Behind the numbers (NY Fed): 

"At the end of the first quarter, more than twenty million federal borrowers were not in repayment and five million federal borrowers had a zero dollar monthly payment. In the next set of bars, we show the borrower delinquency rate after removing borrowers without a payment due (henceforth, the conditional borrower delinquency rate). Among borrowers who were required to make payments, nearly one in four student loan borrowers (23.7 percent) were behind on their student loans in the first quarter of 2025."

About the Author

Dave Martin

Dave joins NGPF with 15 years of teaching experience in math and computer science. After joining the New York City Teaching Fellows program and earning a Master's degree in Education from Pace University, his teaching career has taken him to New York, New Jersey and a summer in the north of Ghana. Dave firmly believes that financial literacy is vital to creating well-rounded students that are prepared for a complex and highly competitive world. During what free time two young daughters will allow, Dave enjoys video games, Dungeons & Dragons, cooking, gardening, and taking naps.