Residents Respond to Biden’s Student Loan Forgiveness Plan

The Biden Administration filed a legal brief with the U.S. Supreme Court defending its plan to cancel hundreds of billions of dollars in student debt.

ABC 31 News Reporter

Keisha Swafford has the story on how residents feel about this student debt forgiveness plan.

President Joe Biden says, “The cost of education beyond high school has gone up significantly. The total cost to attend a public 4-year university has tripled, nearly tripled in 40 years.”

Associate Professor of University of Wisconsin Nicholas Hillman says 16 million borrowers have already applied for cancellation of their student loans.

“If you’re an individual making $25,000 or less a year than you can qualify for forgiveness but if you’re a household, they double it so if you’re a household making $250,000 or less, you would qualify.”

One resident says graduates should be responsible for paying back student loans.

Hillman says, “Another one is “Hey why students? They’re arguably in the best position because they’ve at least got some college. Why not forgive medical debt or other types of debt? Why student loan debt?”

Two student-loan borrowers sued because they did not qualify for the full $20,000 amount of relief.

“These two individuals claimed that the federal government did not give a process to allow them to provide public feedback on the criteria. And if they were allowed to participate in that feedback process, then maybe they would have been eligible.”

One resident says the federal government keeps increasing tuition and should help students pay their loans.

Hillman says, “You know, I hear it from a lot of different angles. One of them being, for people who paid their loans already, they say ‘Wait? I’ve done everything I’ve supposed to do. Where is my help from this?’”

In the meantime, the Biden Administration is blocked from carrying out its plan.

Republicans and conservative groups have filed at least six lawsuits to try to kill the policy.