When a borrower calls the Oklahoma Student Loan Authority with a problem repaying a student loan, Customer Service Supervisor Mary Anne Evans and her staff try to find a way to help, whether it means a deferment, forbearance or reduced payments.

“Generally, we try to assess their situation, whether it be unemployment, economic hardship, or it could be that they are going back to school,” Evans said.

However, there's only so much the student loan authority, which services about 150,000 educational loans in the state, can do to help borrowers, said Larry Hollingsworth, vice president of loan management for the authority.

“We don't really have a magic wand — we're not able to make their student loan debt go away,” Hollingsworth said. “It's still a debt that they have incurred, and that they have to repay.”