Op-Ed: How the pandemic unfairly saddled low-income California college students with debt

When growing numbers of low-income students left college in the middle of the school year during the pandemic, their financial aid awards became “institutional debts” owed and due for payment to their schools effective immediately. … Our research, with [Professor] Dalíe Jiménez of the UC Irvine School of Law, has found that reversed financial aid awards have been the biggest source of institutional debts during the pandemic.