A new bill in the Ohio Legislature would halt the collection of student and medical debt owed to state universities and hospitals. Ohio Public Radio's Jo Ingles explains.
The bill (HB32) would do what is already being done with federal student loans and some federal debt – put the collection of it on hold. Democratic Representative Jessica Miranda says many Ohioans who owe those debts are suffering during this pandemic and need the relief.
“It wouldn’t keep compounding this debt for folks who have it in terms of interest and penalties because we know people are going through a hard time right now. The least we can do as a state is make sure this debt doesn’t become insurmountable where we can never get out from underneath it.”
Miranda says she doesn’t yet know how much it will cost the state but expects to have those figures when the bill gets consideration by a legislative committee.
![Randi Weingarten, of the American Federation of Teachers, says the message of her organization's lawsuit is clear: "Protect the students of the United States of America — not the for-profit [schools] that are making a buck off of them."](https://npr.brightspotcdn.com/dims4/default/c32c79c/2147483647/strip/true/crop/5041x2809+0+276/resize/560x312!/format/webp/quality/90/?url=https%3A%2F%2Fmedia.npr.org%2Fassets%2Fimg%2F2020%2F01%2F21%2Fgettyimages-1124273943_slide-5c348f247ded888fb00d0839c50b63ca65bad54d.jpg)
