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Student loan bill in your holiday mail? 1 million Georgians drive state’s No. 3 rank for student debt

People demonstrate outside the Supreme Court on June 30 in Washington. A sharply divided Supreme Court ruled the Biden administration overstepped its authority in trying to cancel or reduce student loan debts for millions of Americans. Conservative justices were in the majority in a 6-3 decision that effectively killed the $400 billion plan that President Joe Biden announced last year. (AP Photo/Jacquelyn Martin)
People demonstrate outside the Supreme Court on June 30 in Washington. A sharply divided Supreme Court ruled the Biden administration overstepped its authority in trying to cancel or reduce student loan debts for millions of Americans. Conservative justices were in the majority in a 6-3 decision that effectively killed the $400 billion plan that President Joe Biden announced last year. (AP Photo/Jacquelyn Martin) People demonstrate outside the Supreme Court on June 30 in Washington. A sharply divided Supreme Court ruled the Biden administration overstepped its authority in trying to cancel or reduce student loan debts for millions of Americans. Conservative justices were in the majority in a 6-3 decision that effectively killed the $400 billion plan that President Joe Biden announced last year. (AP Photo/Jacquelyn Martin)

By Ross Williams / Georgia Recorder 4 min read

A college degree isn’t cheap. And for the first time since the pandemic, more than 1 million Georgians need to factor in the cost of student loan payments into their budgets.

Loan payments, paused during the pandemic, kicked back in this October, creating a new monthly expense for more than 15% of Georgians.

Georgia ranks No. 3 in the nation for student loan debt after the District of Columbia and Maryland, with the average borrower more than $41,000 in the red for their diploma, according to the Education Data Initiative, an organization that researches the U.S. education system.

In all, 1.6 million Georgians owe $68.6 billion in student loans, and just over half of them are 35 or older.

An October Pew study found the resumption of payments could affect states differently. People in states where the total outstanding federal loan balance makes up more than 10% of total personal income can be at particular risk, and in Georgia, federal student loans make up 13.3% of state personal income, according to the Pew Research Center.