Kansas City Mayor, organizations get involved in the push for student debt relief

KANSAS CITY, Mo. (KCTV) – On Friday, Mayor Quinton Lucas, local organizations, and the Student Borrower Protection Center met to see what they can do to help assist as thousands of Kansas Citians work to pay off their student loans.

On average, people owe over $37,000 in federal student loan debt.

Every year, more and more students take out loans to pay for their education.

“It was a little scary at first,” said UMKC sophomore Connor Frazier.

He is working toward becoming a neurologist one day and needed the extra boost of student loans to continue pursuing his undergraduate degree.

“It had to be done so I just did it,” said Frazier.

He knows it is going to lead to a large amount to pay back after years of school.

“It is definitely a long-term thing,” said Frazier.

For students who are now in repayment, it can be difficult to keep up.

“It is something that limits your ability to even have a vision and a plan for the future,” said Kansas City, Missouri Mayor Quinton Lucas He added, “I want to be able to have people who can invest in themselves and their families I want people who actually have the resources to buy whatever they need to. And instead what we are largely doing is frustrating that and is restraining that opportunity.”

At the roundtable, they discussed how they are working at the federal, state, and local levels on policy, advocacy, and assistance for those in debt.

This is as lawsuits over the Biden-Harris Administration’s push for assistance and federal claims of service failures continue.

“Folks are working hard on this issue and be a touch point for folks so if they need information or policy solutions you know this is kind of the first entryway into that,” said the Student Borrower Protection Center Outreach and Advocacy Manager, Amy Czulada. She added, “Folks are having a really hard time in repayment and that is often because services miscommunicate or give false information about their student loans.”

KCTV5 reached out to Missouri Attorney General Andrew Bailey’s Office for comment on Friday afternoon.

He is one AG leading lawsuits to block student loan cancellation, they did not respond as of Friday afternoon.

Mayor Lucas said something needs to change to allow people to live their lives without major financial burdens.

“We won’t have rural hospitals and healthcare, we won’t have enough teachers, we won’t have enough technicians, we won’t have people who have been able to go through good vocational training, so that to me is what this is really about,” said Mayor Lucas.

If you have student loans, the most up-to-date information on repayment and other information can be found here.

On Friday, Mayor Quinton Lucas, local organizations, and the
Student Borrower Protection Center
met to see what they can do to help assist as thousands of Kansas Citians work to pay off their student loans.(KCTV5/Samantha Boring)

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