Student debt is creating an affordability crisis: A conversation with Dr. Grace Page

In the first episode of Summer’s podcast, Jamila Stewart talks with Dr. Grace Page about what affordability looks like for working people right now. Dr. Grace leads employee well-being at Fairfax County Public Schools, and she previously helped bring a student loan benefit to employees at the City of Alexandria. She speaks both as an HR leader and as a borrower herself: a single mom paying off her own loans while her son starts college. Since the COVID payment pause ended and the SAVE plan went away, she has seen employees get notices of sharply higher payments, often with no idea what to do next. That stress doesn’t stay with one person. It spreads to their families, and it follows them to work.

Dr. Grace explains why student debt has become an employer issue. Employees turn to HR first when they have questions about PSLF, and if HR doesn’t have answers, word gets around. For public-sector employers working with tight, taxpayer-funded budgets, she sees helping people get PSLF as one of the simplest ways to support them. The program already exists, so helping employees get into it doesn’t need its own budget line. Her advice to leaders is to put yourself in your employees’ shoes and take care of this easy fix first.