One of the key promises of President Joe Biden’s administration has been to relieve the pockets of Americans from their student loan-related debts. The plan is not an immediate, free-for-all erasure of debt, but rather an outlined series of steps meant to facilitate and provide relief for low-income Americans. While the final application of the plan is still under review, it would provide partial or full relief for borrowers who have entered repayment in at least one of their loans and would apply only on the loans in the repayment process.
When it was first introduced, a number of states sued the Biden administration to prevent it from going forward, claiming that it would affect their tax revenue. The suit was filed in Georgia in September and U.S. District Judge J. Randall Hall issued a temporary block on the plan. After review, he dismissed Georgia’s complaint last Wednesday, Oct. 2. He then transferred the case to the U.S. District for Eastern Missouri as a more proper venue for the suit since Georgia could not prove that it would be affected as it claimed. The plan was then blocked immediately on Thursday, Oct. 3 by the U.S. District Judge Matthew Schelp, who insisted it required more court review.
The legal hurdles that Biden’s plan is going through harm not only his presidency but also over 25 million Americans who could benefit. Some debtors have been dealing with the consequences of student loans for years, long after graduation. It is not acceptable that young people need to financially shoot themselves in the foot to get a career. The people burdened by these debts are not irresponsible or lazy; they were simply doing what they had to to afford an education.
And this education does not even promise a future. It is not guaranteed that every college graduate will get a high-paying job, but if they had to take out loans to pay their tuition, it is certain that they will carry the weight of that decision for decades to come. It is a privilege to graduate debt-free from university, an opportunity that UTSA is trying to facilitate for its students. In 2023, the university reported that 43% of its students graduated debt-free. In the future, it is imperative that this percentage rises so that UTSA alumni can be the most successful they can be.
One does not have to be a Democrat to see the vision behind Biden’s student debt forgiveness plan, as the problem affects Americans on all sides of the political spectrum. USA Today reports that as of 2024, 42.2 million Americans have student loan debts. The administration’s plan cannot offer relief to all of them, but it is a start to tackling this growing socioeconomic problem.
