Last summer, the Biden Administration announced a plan to forgive up to $20,000 of student debt for individuals nationwide. However, due to immense backlog stemming from the Supreme Court, the current status of Biden’s Student Loan Forgiveness Plan remains undecided.

“Personally, Joe Biden did not help me out with college too much. My tuition was way more than $10,000. Knowing such a plan was coming up was more of a cushion than it was a solution to the problem,” said AV Alumni and Biola University student Ben Hensen.

What is taking so long? 

Currently, Biden’s plan has been significantly hindered by two major court cases.

The first court case delaying the implementation of student loan forgiveness is Department of Education v. Brown, in which Biden’s proposal has been said to violate the Administrative Procedure Act (APA) – a law which requires federal agencies to give the public the option to vote on change of policy before they take into effect.

“I’m not for debt relief in this regard, because somebody is going to have to pay for it and it is gonna be me – the taxpayer. People need to be smarter about what college they pick and what major they pick,” said AV Freshman English teacher Sara Marek.

The second court case is Biden v. Nebraska, in which several states claim that the Biden Administration has violated the APA as well as the Constitutional Separation of Powers (directly harming states’ ability to recruit and retain college-educated employees by nullifying incentives provided by 2007 Public Service Loan Forgiveness program). 

“Knowing that we have a little bit of extra money to help us to get into these amazing schools and actually pay for them does help,” said Carondelet High School student Raquel Soltis (‘23).

Why is this issue so important?

Amador Valley is a school of many prestigious awards and honorable students. As a result, the average cost of university tuition for AV students is somewhat more expensive than the national average. Although the median household income in Pleasanton is calculated to be around $156,400, the average cost of college for Amador students in 2022 was $32,664. Many, however, have cited the benefits of Biden’s plan in less fortunate areas where financial assistance could spark meaningful change.

“The ten thousand will affect me greatly, because my family is very low income. I will have to go to a community college, because we cannot afford to go to a four year university immediately,” said Jaymie Gardner (‘23).

The future of student debt remains clouded under a veil of uncertainty, and it will take patience, attention, and willingness from everyone involved as the government and its systems work to find a solution.