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A barrage of updates to the federal student loan repayment system this year has left borrowers feeling misled and frightened for their future. 

“I don’t feel like this is what I said I signed up for at the beginning,” Monica Setti said about paying back the loans she took out more than a decade ago to attend Portland State University.

OPB’s higher education reporter Tiffany Camhi explains why Setti and many others feel that way, more proposed changes and how to chart a path through it all.

In Northeast Portland, hundreds gathered Saturday to celebrate the opening of a new 94-unit housing development. OPB politics and government reporter Bryce Dole covered the event where community leaders touted the project as a first step in repairing harm done to the Black community displaced by urban renewal and the construction of Interstate 5 years ago.

This weekend OPB also completed its series taking a look back at the Labor Day fires that devastated communities across Oregon five years ago. OPB’s Francisca Benitez and Sheraz Sadiq described the horrors that survivors experienced that day and how they’ve attempted to rebuild their homes and lives. And political reporter Lauren Dake offered a look at what the state’s leaders learned from the destructive fires.

Here’s your First Look at Monday’s news.

—John Hill

Oregon borrowers face confusion, anxiety as federal changes disrupt student loan repayment options

Millions of borrowers across Oregon and the U.S. are having a difficult time making sense of recent policy shifts impacting their federal student loans.

The U.S. Department of Education says the changes improve and simplify the student loan repayment system. But the complex changes have left borrowers feeling paralyzed, anxious and misled.

This year’s student loan repayment changes largely stem from two sources: court decisions and the passage of the reconciliation bill, also known as President Trump’s One Big Beautiful Bill.

“Part of what is causing confusion for folks is that there are several things happening simultaneously,” Oregon Student Loan Ombudsman Lane Thompson said. “One of the biggest things that’s changed is that the SAVE plan no longer exists.” (Tiffany Camhi) 

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Things to know this morning

• Hundreds of people gathered in Northeast Portland on Saturday to celebrate the opening of Albina One, a new 94-unit development that sits on North Flint Avenue just north of the Moda Center. Community leaders say it’s a first step toward correcting a historical injustice against Portland’s Black community by revitalizing the Lower Albina neighborhood. (Bryce Dole)
• Light rain over the weekend helped dampen some of the state’s wildfires, but lightning sparked new fires and the rain didn’t slow the growth of the Black Rock Fire in north-central Oregon. That fire grew to over 30,000 acres over the weekend in Wasco and Wheeler counties, closing part of the John Day Fossil Beds National Monument. (April Ehrlich)
• The 2020 Labor Day fires prompted state leaders to change how they handle emergency response. With the fifth anniversary of the 2020 wildfires here, some of them reflected on what’s changed and what still worries them. (Lauren Dake)
• The Almeda Fire turned the Bear Creek Greenway between Ashland and Phoenix into a barren, ashy landscape. Recovery has involved many partners and cost hundreds of thousands of dollars. (Roman Battaglia)

Irene Gilbert’s mission to challenge renewable energy projects

OPB investigative reporter and editor Tony Schick joins us to talk about the story he recently did for OPB and ProPublica on a 76-year-old retired state employee’s battle against some of Oregon’s renewable energy projects.

Listen

Headlines from around the Northwest

• Portland-filmed ‘Twinless’ is a dark comedy that doubles up on the twists (Ryan Benk and Scott Simon)
• Photo exhibit at the Eugene Public Library shares the stories of immigrants (Sajina Shrestha)
• Eugene chocolatier struggles to deal with years of high cocoa prices (Zac Ziegler)

Listen in on OPB’s daily conversation

Noon and 8 p.m. weekdays on OPB Radio, opb.org and the OPB News app. Today’s planned topics (subject to change):

• Two reporters join us to talk about their coverage of a Canadian wood products company’s release of contaminated stormwater into the South Yamhill River. An administrator from the Department of Environmental Quality also joins the conversation to explain the agency’s response.

🎡 ‘At Work With’ an Oaks Park ride inspector-operator who finds ‘absolute peace’ high above on AtmosFear

Sean Strauss surpassed the height requirement for the biggest thrill rides at Oaks Amusement Park many years ago, but the excitement hasn’t worn off for him at all.

He actually made it part of his job.

Strauss, 50, works as a ride foreman, meaning he supervises staff and inspects rides.

But he also loves the thrill of a good ride.

“I think I’ve let my fear go,” said Strauss. “The more experience we have with something that makes us nervous or afraid, with a safe result, we can let go of fear a little bit at a time.

“I think that’s a really wonderful human thing to do.” (Malya Fass)

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News Source : https://www.opb.org/article/2025/09/08/first-look-federal-changes-student-loan-system-oregon-borrowers/