Meet a 30-year-old with $110,000 in student debt who chose her job in hopes of public-service loan forgiveness — but her balance just keeps growing [People who are this dumb should not be allowed to borrow money]

Like millions of student-loan borrowers, Kjerstin Laine is in loan-relief limbo.

For Laine, a 30-year-old who has over $110,000 in student debt, the $20,000 in forgiveness she's set to get from President Joe Biden's plan is just a drop in the bucket. As a first-generation college student whose debt has shaped the trajectory of her career, she fears her balance will balloon even more after pandemic-era payment pauses end and interest starts accruing again.

"I never miss a payment, always on time, and yet my balances never go down," Laine told Insider. "I don't understand how people can't see that there is something wrong with that picture."

Despite working through college and taking measures to cut down on the cost, Laine completed her degree in 2014 with a grand total of $98,000 in debt from her undergraduate and graduate studies. In the eight years since, accruing interest has brought her balance to today's amount, despite her consistent repayment.

She went on to a "dream school" for a master's in journalism, still working part time and leaving with an additional $80,000 in debt in 2014. At the end of her time in school, she was hospitalized for dehydration after she said she ran herself ragged.

Despite consistent payments, the years since graduation have seen Laine's debt grow.

"I was paying $300 until the pandemic hit. I was paying $300 a month, I think, for three to four years, and my balances never went down," she said. "They always went up."

“I was paying $300 a month, I think, for three to four years, and my balances never went down. They always went up.”

This dingbat.... I, too, graduated with a loan of $75K (in 2004). I made my first payment. The next month I got my statement with the next payment and I READ IT and saw immediately that my minimum payments barely covered the interest, and I understood immediately that if I wanted to make progress, I'd have to pay more than the minimum. I monitored it closely.

Eventually, around 2010, I sat down with paper and pen and figured out that if I paid twice the minimum each month, I'd be paid off on April of 2018. And I paid it off in April 2018. And I was an English teacher, with pitiful math skills, living in Los Angeles, too broke for a car most of the time. If I can do it, dammit, anyone can.

Going to Community College for me was not having the funds to pay for 4 year even public university! You disparage students attending as deficient which is not always true. I love that there is a stepping stone Community College for those who are challenged financially. Those who yes need remedial education…and those in the community no matter what age may seek further education…. There were many seniors in my anthropology and geology courses…they actually provided the insight of an older generation in class discussions. Blessed to have known them.
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Sorry, if I was not clear...I think you missed my point.

No, I was not disparaging community college...I was sharing what my high school’s attitude was...what they encouraged.

What I said...

“Going to the community college was considered a punishment for slacking senior year...A threat to be used by parents if students were not working to potential their senior year.

Frankly, given the times in which we live, I would encourage kids to take basic classes at community colleges as they are at least 50% less than 4-year schools (tho still expensive). Not to mention that kids could live at home for a couple years saving money and not be indoctrinated so easily by radical professors who seem to have infiltrated nearly every university in every subject.”

Not disparaging.

Both my spouse and I took classes at community college as did my kids—and they all have advanced degrees in science-related fields...

I said I would recommend going to community colleges.

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