Biden administration halts student loan relief applications
MINNEAPOLIS -- On the issue of student debt relief, millions of Americans are stuck in financial limbo today after a federal judge struck down the President's forgiveness program.
For now, it means the Biden administration is no longer accepting new applications for relief as it appeals the ruling.
The debate over whether this was the right policy move is almost irrelevant. The fact is President Joe Biden's debt forgiveness program created an opportunity for 26 million Americans to sign up and expect promised relief.
"I knew I wanted to go work in the field of psychology and social work and I learned through working you kind of need a masters in this field," Sarah Hardy said.
Hardy, a Saint Mary's graduate, initially planned on waiting a couple more years for grad school, but when Biden pitched the forgiveness program, Hardy saw an opportunity to bank on the relief and kickstart her enrollment. She's now in her first semester.
"It's tough. I won't downplay that. It makes me think should I start pulling out money from my paychecks again to get a head start that I'm accruing?" Hardy said. "We do these things to move our education forward to get better jobs and get a home, and this will set me back a little bit and change the timeline of where I want things to go in the future."
The U.S. Department of Education reporting some 780,000 Minnesotans like Hardy are carrying student loan debt, which combined is worth $26 billion. Biden's plan, introduced this past summer, anticipated paychecks arriving before Jan. 1, when interest on student loans resumes after pausing for COVID-19.
The administration's appeal now heading from a Texas judge to the 5th Circuit Court of Appeals, which is one level below the Supreme Court. And anyone who knows anything about the judicial process knows nothing happens quickly. That means for students like Hardy, it's a wait-and-see approach. But at least she got her application in, and it's not going anywhere.
"I don't have kids, I don't have a mortgage. There are people where this is a lot tougher on them than it is on me," Hardy said.
The current case in Texas is one of a number of legal challenges against Biden's student loan forgiveness program, including a pending lawsuit from six other states that's heading to a different Circuit Court of Appeals.