Unsettling Accounts: How Illinois is Confronting the Student Loan Crisis

With $63 billion in collective student loan debt, new forgiveness programs and innovative solutions aim to help borrowers. But state funding and public awareness remains an obstacle.

by Claire Murphy May 27, 2025July 8, 2025

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Unsettling Accounts: How Illinois is Confronting the Student Loan Crisis

by Claire Murphy, Illinois Answers Project
May 27, 2025

<h1>Unsettling Accounts: How Illinois is Confronting the Student Loan Crisis</h1>
<p class="byline">by Claire Murphy, Illinois Answers Project <br />May 27, 2025</p>
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<p>This <a target="_blank" href="https://illinoisanswers.org/2025/05/27/unsettling-accounts-how-illinois-is-confronting-the-student-loan-crisis/">article</a> first appeared on <a target="_blank" href="https://illinoisanswers.org">Illinois Answers Project</a> and is republished here under a <a target="_blank" href="https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nd/4.0/">Creative Commons Attribution-NoDerivatives 4.0 International License</a>.&nbsp;<img src="https://i0.wp.com/illinoisanswers.org/wp-content/uploads/2022/11/cropped-favicon.png?resize=150%2C150&amp;ssl=1" alt="" width="16" height="16" style="width:1em;height:1em;"></p>
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Tagged: Repayment Program, borrowers, Making it in Chicago, education, Illinois, debt relief, SmartBuy, Debt, Pritzker

Claire MurphyIntern

cmurphy@illinoisanswers.org

Claire Murphy is an investigative reporting intern at the Illinois Answers Project. She is currently a graduate journalism student at Northwestern University’s Medill School. Claire received her bachelor’s degree in journalism and history from Santa Clara University.

More by Claire Murphy