More than 1.5 million borrowers who first took out loans before 2000 still have debt. Borrowers with debt from the mid-1990s or earlier tend to have higher default rates, have lower credit scores, and live in lower-income neighborhoods than more recent student loan borrowers. A report from the Urban Institute discusses policy solutions that could provide relief for borrowers and decrease the chances of recent borrowers holding loans for decades.
The report can be obtained at https://www.urban.org/sites/default/files/publication/101492/when_student_loans_linger.pdf.