Student loans can crush an individual. And when a lot of people have more debt than they can handle, the effects ripple into the larger economy.

Judith Scott-Clayton, an associate professor at Columbia University, discusses the economic impact of the $1.6 trillion Americans collectively owe in student debt.

President-elect Joe Biden and some members of Congress have proposed different ways to erase some amount of student debt across the board. NPR's Anya Kamenetz explains the likelihood of those proposals actually working out.

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