Progressives who spent more than a year pushing President Joe Biden to cancel debt in the first place say they\u2019re mobilizing in the coming year to hold onto a hard-fought victory.
\nFor President Joe Biden, deciding to cancel student debt might have been the easy part. Getting it done will prove to be harder.<\/p>\n
After a drawn-out, intraparty debate over the wisdom of forgiving student debt, Biden heads into the third year of his presidency \u2014 and a likely reelection campaign \u2014 fighting to keep his signature education policy alive.
\nThe plan heads to the Supreme Court in February, where the conservative majority will weigh the legality of canceling up to $20,000 for more than 40 million borrowers. The Education Department approved some 16 million borrowers for the program but their relief remains in limbo as the court decides.<\/p>\n
Progressives who spent more than a year pushing Biden to cancel debt in the first place say they\u2019re mobilizing in the coming year to hold onto a hard-fought victory.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt felt, at times, like pulling teeth to get him to champion that cancellation,\u201d said Natalia Abrams, the founder and president of Student Debt Crisis Center, an advocacy group that\u2019s worked with the White House and Democrats on the issue.
\n\u201cNow he\u2019s gone full force on it,\u201d Abrams said. \u201cI think he does care about student loan borrowers and about this issue. I don\u2019t see him walking away.\u201d<\/p>\n
With the window for major legislative victories closing as Republicans prepare to take control of the House, Biden has not fundamentally reformed how American higher education is financed. While his big plan tackles the backend of the costs, his most sweeping proposals for free college and dramatically expanding student aid are effectively dead for now.<\/p>\n
But the unprecedented $400 billion student debt relief program, paired with Biden\u2019s planned revamp of how borrowers repay their remaining debt, could reshape the federal student loan program for years to come \u2014 if the president can make it a reality.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe are gearing up for another large push to make sure that we cross the finish line when it comes to this battle to cancel student debt,\u201d said Wisdom Cole, national director of the youth and college division at the NAACP.<\/p>\n
\u201cTo see this not come to fruition would be an atrocity for borrowers all across the nation and impact Black borrowers at a higher level,\u201d he said. The NAACP and other civil rights groups, along with Democrats in the Congressional Black Caucus and Hispanic Caucus, were among the most vocal proponents of getting the White House to finalize a debt relief plan.<\/p>\n
Biden\u2019s plan was meant to be something of a middle ground between the $10,000 of relief he endorsed on the campaign trail and the upwards of $50,000 some liberals had sought. Pell grant recipients, who are the majority of borrowers and come from the lowest-income households, are entitled to up to $20,000 of relief.<\/p>\n
\u201cSome think it\u2019s too much,\u201d Biden said when he announced the plan in August. He added: \u201cSome think it\u2019s too little, but I believe my plan is responsible and fair.\u201d<\/p>\n
Biden, and other Democrats, have credited student debt relief with helping to buoy the party\u2019s unexpectedly strong performance in the midterm elections, losing the House narrowly and keeping control of the Senate. Biden praised turnout among younger Americans at his post-election press conference: \u201cThey voted to continue addressing the climate crisis, gun violence, their personal rights and freedoms, and the student debt relief.\u201d
\nIn February, Biden\u2019s plan will go before a Supreme Court that\u2019s already shown hostility to some of his other high-profile pandemic-era policies enacted through emergency authority. It struck down Biden\u2019s workplace Covid vaccine rule and his administration\u2019s extension of the eviction moratorium.<\/p>\n
The Republican appointees on the court have come out strongly against administrative powers more generally, too. They struck down an EPA climate policy earlier this year in a landmark case that reined in agency powers more broadly. The six GOP states challenging Biden\u2019s student debt relief have invoked that precedent.<\/p>\n
Beyond the legal challenges to debt relief, Biden also faces a newly-empowered Republican majority that\u2019s gearing up to scrutinize and investigate his administration.<\/p>\n
Some GOP lawmakers are pushing to defund the Education Department\u2019s implementation of the program. And Republican opposition to debt relief already sank any new money for the administration to carry out its student aid priorities as lawmakers negotiated the year-end government spending deal.<\/p>\n
Rep. Virginia Foxx (R-N.C.), who is vying to again lead the House education committee, said the administration\u2019s student loan policies will have the \u201cfull attention\u201d of the panel. She said that GOP oversight plans will extend well beyond the plan that\u2019s being litigated at the Supreme Court.<\/p>\n
Republicans will also focus on \u201cthe litany of other actions\u201d by the Education Department \u201cthat erode the integrity of the student aid programs,\u201d Foxx said in a statement to POLITICO, citing \u201cincome driven repayment, public service loan forgiveness, and the never-ending payment pause.\u201d
\nBiden\u2019s debt relief plan has drawn the most attention, but the Education Department is also charging ahead with other changes that officials say are meant to address systemic problems in the student loan system, especially for low-income borrowers.<\/p>\n
The administration has made it easier for bankrupt borrowers or those defrauded by their college to have their debt discharged. This spring, the Education Department plans to pull millions of borrowers out of default through a \u201cfresh start\u201d initiative and will award millions of other borrowers retroactive credit towards loan forgiveness. Department officials in the coming months will also unveil the details of Biden\u2019s new income-driven repayment plan to cap interest and monthly payments for borrowers.<\/p>\n
\u201cThese are all pieces of a larger puzzle,\u201d said Sarah Sattelmeyer, who is project director for education, opportunity and mobility at New America, a left-leaning think tank.<\/p>\n
\u201cA lot of these things have been on advocates\u2019 wish lists for a long time,\u201d she said. \u201cNow they\u2019re sort of on the verge of happening, and the big question for 2023 is how we can get them implemented.\u201d<\/p>\n
While the White House publicly expresses confidence that its program is legal and will pass muster at the high court, there are already rumblings on the left for how Biden should respond to a legal defeat.<\/p>\n
One option would be having the Education Department invoke a different legal power to cancel debt if the Supreme Court rejects the Biden administration\u2019s argument that a 2003 law gives it the emergency authority to forgive debt as a response to the Covid-19 pandemic.
\nProgressives, led by Sen. Elizabeth Warren (D-Mass.), for years have argued that the secretary of education has the power to erase large amounts of debt under the Higher Education Act\u2019s \u201ccompromise and settlement\u201d power.<\/p>\n
The White House opted against using that law for its debt relief program, and officials haven\u2019t said publicly if they view it as a viable alternative. But the Biden Education Department has already used that settlement authority to discharge billions of dollars worth of federal student loans, mostly for borrowers who claimed they were defrauded by a for-profit college.<\/p>\n
Regardless of how the Supreme Court rules, the NAACP\u2019s Cole said, the Biden administration should make sure that debt relief happens \u201cby any means necessary.\u201d That includes \u201cexamining other solutions or alternatives\u201d for canceling student debt if the high court knocks down Biden\u2019s first attempt.<\/p>\n
Abrams, of the Student Debt Crisis Center, said: \u201cWe need to have a very clear Plan B, where borrowers can see relief one way or another.\u201d<\/p>\n