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... Kathleen Naranjo was almost eight years into paying off her portion of $50,000 in student loans when a federal appeals court last month ended one of the most affordable loan repayment plans in history. That Biden administration-era plan had reduced her monthly payments to $92 and she was working toward the day when the remaining balance would be forgiven after 10 years of payments doing public service as a nurse.

Now amid soaring gas and food prices, Ms. Naranjo is enrolling in her next best option. Her monthly payment will triple, scrambling her personal finances at a moment when she is hunting for her first house.

"That's the only way that I can really do it, otherwise I'm going to be paying this loan until I die," she says.

More than 7 million borrowers who had been enrolled in the income-based Saving on A Valuable Education (SAVE) plan like Ms. Naranjo have been told that beginning July 1, they will have 90 days to get into a new loan repayment plan or be routed into one by the government.

The SAVE plan arrived in 2023 as millions of student borrowers were emerging from a three-year pause in payments during the pandemic. It was meant to chip away at the now more than $1.8 trillion in total student debt held by borrowers across the country by tying payments to income.

The plan lowered payments to $0 for many of the lowest earners -- preventing unpaid interest from accumulating and offering earlier loan forgiveness.

But many critics charged that American taxpayers were being saddled with debt. Republican-governed states challenged the executive action and ultimately the courts stopped it because Congress had not approved it. ...