The amount of federal student debt wiped away under the Biden administration currently stands at $160 billion. That may sound like a lot of relief, but truthfully, this sum shrinks compared to the astronomical $1.7 trillion still burdening tens of millions, or about 13%, of Americans. The cancellation the Biden administration has delivered thus far has mostly been through enforcing existing programs like Income Driven Repayment and Public Service Loan Forgiveness (PSLF), or by heeding the demand of activists to discharge the debt owed to predatory for-profit colleges — not due to some new major executive action. Right now, the reality is that if you had student debt when Joe Biden became president, there's a strong chance you still have it. So it’s no surprise that when Biden campaigns for reelection by touting his "promises kept,” it sounds like a toxic ex doing the bare minimum but expecting a coveted place in your life. It’s an out-of-touch gloat going into a contested 2024 presidential election where Biden’s approval rating is historically low.
I have personal experience with federal student debt. My loan balance has grown to more than $120,000, causing me to forgo saving for retirement. It’s led to sleepless nights, panic attacks, and depression. I spent over a decade as an arts educator in underserved communities. But after piecing together a career through a patchwork of grants and nonprofit work, I don’t qualify for debt cancellation programs like PSLF.
And yet, my debt played a pivotal role in politicizing me. I’m not alone (or as my comrades and I in the debt resistance movement like to say, I am not a loan). In a 2022 poll from Data for Progress (DfP) and Student Borrower Protection Center (SBPC), 56% of young voters, aged 18 to 34, said student debt relief would motivate them to vote during the midterm elections. More recently, the Department of Education said that 40% of borrowers skipped out on paying since the end of the COVID pause.
The student debt crisis has also had a catastrophic impact on Black wealth overall, with Black women disproportionately devastated. While women are burdened by two-thirds of federal student loan debt, Black women are weighed down more than any other demographic group. Since these voters are the Democrats’ most loyal base, the Biden administration would be wise to remain true to their word. Granted, Biden has taken steps to help borrowers after the Supreme Court struck down his initial proposal to cancel more than $400 billion in student debt. The question is whether his administration will move swiftly enough to deliver lifesaving relief before Election Day when control of the White House and the Department of Education could change hands.
It’s important to understand precisely why SCOTUS struck down Biden's plan A. The Biden administration initially used the HEROES Act of 2003 to administer relief, which allows the Department of Education to “waive or modify” federal debt for debtors impacted by a national emergency. Their claim was that the COVID-19 pandemic was that kind of emergency and provided justification for mass debt relief. Seven weeks passed between the announcement of the plan and the launch of a website allowing people to apply for relief. Unfortunately, this gave conservatives ample time to file lawsuits, two of which eventually ended up before the High Court. In a 6-3 decision, conservative Supreme Court justices denied relief for millions of working-class borrowers.
This time, Biden is pursuing relief through the Higher Education Act (HEA) of 1965, which allows the US secretary of education to "compromise, wave, or release" federal student debts. Borrowers and government officials spent months in a regulatory process called negotiated rulemaking, which determines the regulatory boundaries of the HEA. And their plan does propose some legitimate steps, like canceling student debt for borrowers who enrolled in low-financial-value programs. But it doesn’t go nearly far enough. For debt relief to work, it has to be broad-scale and automatic.
My fellow organizers at the Debt Collective, the nation’s first union of debtors, have made it easy for Biden to churn out real relief by creating a Student Debt Release Tool. The tool helps borrowers petition the Department of Education to use its legal authority under the HEA to discharge all federal student debt. So far, more than 44,000 borrowers have filled out the tool. The president and his team could use all of this data to move swiftly, perhaps even as fast as the government moved to wipe out $790 billion in the Paycheck Protection Program for small businesses during the height of COVID (75% of which benefitted the richest 20% of American households).
Biden still has the power to deliver a massive domestic policy win. With high prices for basic items, skyrocketing rents, and wars raging, Americans young and old desperately need something to be hopeful about. When leaders in Washington deliver on promises in ways that help working-class people, they should absolutely message that to voters because it’s good for democracy and a reminder that change is possible. Sadly, Biden’s habit of positioning crumbs of student debt relief as an accomplishment only stirs up cognitive dissonance for those in the electorate who have high student debt balances and bills they can’t afford. There's still time for Biden to fully utilize the tools at his disposal to deliver meaningful relief. Now, that would be something worth bragging about.
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