A total of 18 states are now suing the Biden administration over its new student debt forgiveness program, hoping to halt $1.2 billion in loan relief for more than 150,000 borrowers.
The SAVE Repayment Plan, which was announced in February, allows borrowers to have their federal student debt forgiven if they took out $12,000 or less and have made payments for at least 10 years.
A federal lawsuit filed Tuesday — led by Missouri and joined by Arkansas, Florida, Georgia, North Dakota, Ohio and Oklahoma — is aimed at stopping the plan. A similar lawsuit was filed late last month by Kansas and 10 other states: Alabama, Alaska, Idaho, Iowa, Louisiana, Montana, Nebraska, South Carolina, Texas and Utah.
In fact, data suggests that the beneficiaries of student loan forgiveness are disproportionately from low- and middle-class households, with women and nonwhite people as some of the main beneficiaries.
The average student loan debt in those 18 states is nearly $27,500, according to Education Department published by USA Today. And contrary to conservatives’ claims, these aren’t all rich elites. In fact, data suggests that the beneficiaries of student loan forgiveness are disproportionately from low- and middle-class households, with women and nonwhite people as some of the main beneficiaries.
Perhaps that’s why conservatives are so eager to stop it.
The Biden administration has experimented with ways to forgive student loan debt ever since the Supreme Court overruled the White House’s attempt at large-scale forgiveness last year. In total, the administration has forgiven more than $140 billion in student loans (and has vowed to forgive even more). This week, in fact, Biden announced a new forgiveness plan — and we can fully expect Republicans to challenge that, too.
For me, these lawsuits serve as a reminder that the GOP’s performative sympathy with Americans’ financial situations is utter nonsense. The Biden administration is actively working to unshackle people from immobilizing debt. Meanwhile, Republicans are trying to keep them handcuffed to that debt — potentially forever.
Ja’han Jones is an MS NOW opinion blogger. He previously wrote The ReidOut Blog.