Last week, President Biden got bad news on his student loan plan twice. A judge in Kansas and another in Missouri – both appointed by former president Obama – struck down his latest student loan forgiveness plan.
At the same time, a new study came out revealing that 59% of students “considered dropping out due to financial stress” – while 19% already have.
Biden’s latest defeat
When Biden lost broad student loan forgiveness to the Supreme Court a year ago, he created the Saving on Valuable Education (SAVE) plan, which calculates borrowers’ repayment based on their income and family size.
Those who earn the least and have the largest families were most likely to benefit from the SAVE program. But even that couldn’t survive judges’ scrutiny.
U.S. District Judge Daniel Crabtree and U.S. District Judge John Ross both ruled in separate cases brought by their respective state attorneys general.
“Only Congress has the power of the purse, not the President,” Andrew Bailey, Missouri’s attorney general, said in a statement. “Today’s ruling was a huge win for the rule of law, and for every American who Joe Biden was about to force to pay off someone else’s debt.”
That doesn’t make it a win for students pursuing higher education.
Climbing college costs
College costs have ballooned by 155% over the past four decades, according to data from the National Center for Education Statistics.
With student debt stopping many Americans from buying homes and starting families, more are questioning a traditional degree’s return on investment.
Research from Pew shows less than half of Americans believe a college degree is “less important to have a four-year college degree today in order to get a well-paying job than it was 20 years ago.” And only 22% say, “a four-year college degree today is worth it even if someone has to take out loans.”
Republican lawmakers have their own bill for lowering college costs: The College Cost Reduction Act. Authors of the bill claim it will “lower education costs, limit total per person student loans, and make colleges and universities responsible for a portion of unpaid student debt if students are unable to repay.”
Democrats say the bill is “not ready for primetime” and a “recipe for disaster that would negatively impact first-generation and low-income students.”
While lawmakers dicker over the details, the 46th President has already publicly vowed to make his student debt cancellation a reality. Will there be a solution by the next election? Right now, only time will tell.
