Student debt in 2026 — has anything actually changed?

The SAVE plan paused payments and capped interest on many accounts, but for the roughly 40 million Americans still carrying balances, the fundamental problem remains: college costs 10x what it did in 1980, while wages haven't kept pace. The data is stark: average student debt at graduation is around $30,000, but for graduate degrees it's $75,000+. Yet a college degree no longer guarantees a job paying enough to service that debt. We have a generation that borrowed for a credential that doesn't deliver the economic returns it promised. Some cities — including New York, San Francisco, and Baltimore — have launched local programs targeting debt relief tied to staying in the city. Could localization work where federal programs have stalled? Is student debt a solvable problem through targeted relief, or is the root cause the cost structure of higher education itself? What would actually move the needle in 2026?