The Student Debtors Who Never Stopped Paying
For the millions of Americans saddled with student loan debt from private lenders, loan forgiveness is not on the table — yet.
Federal student loan payments have now been on hold for over three years. With the most recent extension of the payment pause announced by President Biden in November, borrowers with federal student loans are not required to resume payments on those loans until the end of August of this year. According to the White House, this most recent extension was made to accommodate the legal challenges facing Biden’s proposed student debt relief plan, which would forgive up to $20,000 in federal student loans for tens of millions of Americans.
The plan, while a welcome step forward, falls woefully short of what the American people demand. Student debt relief, up to and including full loan forgiveness, has enjoyed majority support by the American public in recent years. Despite this strong support, right-wing lawsuits led to the issuance of an injunction by the 8th Circuit Court of Appeals in St. Louis, putting Biden’s plan on the back-burner for now.
The authority of the executive branch to alter student loan payments or interest on those payments is delineated statutorily through the National Defense Education Act of…
