Citing new research from Protect Borrowers, formerly the Student Borrower Protection Center, the coalition advised Education Secretary Linda McMahon in a Jan. 7 letter that a new student loan default occurred every nine seconds in 2025. Further, according to the advocates, the Trump administration’s student loan policies are disproportionately harming Black and older borrowers. Among the states most severely affected were Florida, Georgia, Ohio and Texas, each of which saw 100,000 or more borrowers default last year. “By garnishing wages for defaulted student loan borrowers, the Trump Administration will only deepen financial hardship for working families and disproportionately harm Black borrowers,” said Johnson. That means no access to income-contingent repayment or repayment assistance plan leaving the standard repayment plan as their only choice.