Relief options for parent PLUS borrowers paying for their kid's college education

In January, the Department of Education unveiled details of a repayment plan overhaul that could halve monthly payments for many federal student loan borrowers. But one group, the 3.7 million parents who owe parent PLUS loans, won't benefit. Policymakers have long excluded parent PLUS loans from most relief, though the program looks much different today than it did during its 1980 debut.

While parent PLUS loans were initially intended as a tool for well-off families, said Robert Kelchen, a higher education professor at the University of Tennessee, Knoxville, they've increasingly become the loan of last resort for lower-income families. Parents, who can borrow up to the total cost of attendance per child (minus other federal aid) with PLUS loans, use them to fill funding gaps after their student hits the borrowing limit of no more than $7,500 per year from the government.

Parent PLUS loans come with higher interest rates and higher origination fees than undergraduate federal student loans, further accelerating the debt pileup. In total, parent PLUS loan borrowers have racked up $108.5 billion in loans — more than $29,000 per borrower on average.