'Crippled With Debt': Students Start GoFundMes to Pay for Loans

Student loan borrowers facing crippling debt are turning to GoFundMe in hopes of finding some financial relief through crowdfunding.

One of the many Americans looking for donations is Jovanna Rodrigo, a recent Long Island University graduate with $60,000 in student debt. Rodrigo is anticipating that number will get even higher now that her son wants to pursue higher education.

"In order for my son to go to college, I'd have to co-sign on his loan because I'm his guardian, which means more debt," Rodrigo told Newsweek. "It's a generational cycle of debt for the population that doesn't come from generational wealth."

For decades, soaring education costs and the upward trend in borrowing have propelled the U.S. into a student debt crisis. About 43 million Americans have federal student loan debt that collectively totals $1.757 trillion, according to the most recent data from the Department of Education.

As more and more Americans fall deeply into debt because of college tuition and other school-related costs, there have been calls for the federal government to provide some type of relief for borrowers. President Joe Biden sought to do so last year, announcing that his administration would roll out a plan that would eliminate up to $10,000 in student loan debt for individuals making less than $125,000 annually and up to $20,000 for Pell Grant recipients. The White House estimated that nearly half of Americans who had federal student debt—20 million—would have their balances wiped under the program.

But Biden's forgiveness plan became quickly tied up in the courts after GOP-led states sued his administration, arguing that he had violated his executive authority. On Friday, the Supreme Court's conservative majority sided with those states, effectively striking down Biden's plan and leaving millions of loan balances intact.

Without Biden's program, elementary school teacher Andrea Reyes, who received her bachelor's degree from DePaul University and her master's from Concordia University Chicago, will owe $35,000 in student loans.

'Nothing to Be Ashamed Of'

"When I heard the news, all I could think of was how I was going to manage another living expense like my student debt," Reyes told Newsweek.

She continued: "I instantly thought about the need to get another job, but I thought back to my current occupation as a teacher and wondered how I was going to work my current job and have a second job while also not having to give up my evenings or weekends, which is the only way I relax and recharge to be the best educator for my students."

Like Rodrigo, Reyes has launched a GoFundMe page to help offset her loan payments.

"When Biden's administration announced the student debt relief plan," Rodrigo said, "I hoped for the best but deep down knew this would end in an empty promise. The political climate is more divided than ever, and citizens in need don't seem to be the priority. When big corporations are at a loss, they get bailouts. When everyday citizens like myself ask for assistance, it's considered a handout."

Friday's ruling is yet another example of how divided the Supreme Court has become in recent years. The Court's relatively new conservative supermajority has overturned abortion rights, expanded gun rights and barred colleges from using affirmative action in admissions, all in the last year and a half.

With the justices caught up in ideological disagreements, the conservative majority has issued decisions that can have profound impacts on the lives of everyday Americans.

Rodrigo said she started her GoFundMe page because she believes that Americans can accomplish more by helping one another rather than by "waiting around for the never-ending tug-of-war between Democrats and Republicans."

She noted on her GoFundMe page that with more than 336 million people living in the U.S., she would be able to pay off all her debt if just 0.008 percent of the population donated $2 per person to her fundraiser. However, the website's minimum donation is set at $5.

"I can't even begin to imagine the amount of money we would all save on [interest] if we all paid it forward and helped one another pay off the lingering debt that cripples us from achieving our goals of owning a home, buying a car or taking that much needed vacation," she writes on the page.

Rodrigo, whose son has decided to delay postsecondary education for a year because of their financial situation, told Newsweek that she hopes the Supreme Court's ruling will give her a boost in donations and will encourage other borrowers needing relief to start GoFundMe pages.

She said that many Americans are in the same boat, struggling to pay off not only their own student loans but also the education debt of their children while still worrying about their own debt in their elderly years.

"A close friend of mine recently lost her mother, and despite working her whole life, she was still paying off her student debt and that really struck a chord," Rodrigo said. "We are made to believe higher education is the answer to a better life, but the reality is that it's just a very lucrative business that leaves so many of us crippled with debt."

Reyes said that as the first person in her family to go to college, she had limited knowledge about how long student loans can follow their borrowers around.

Rodrigo asked, "How are we expected to encourage our recent grads to strive for better and pursue higher education when we ourselves are in this hole we have dug ourselves into because we chose to pursue a career?"

While Rodrigo has already received some small donations, Reyes has not gotten any yet.

"I created the GoFundMe and then got cold feet about how I would look asking people for financial assistance," she said. "But I now realize that there are other people like me who are simply using their resources and there should be nothing to be ashamed of."

Update 6/30/2023, 3:54 p.m. ET: This story was updated with additional information.

Update 6/30/2023, 5:05 p.m. ET: This story was updated with comments from Andrea Reyes.