Student loan forgiveness is in legal limbo as facets of the Biden Administration’s broader student loan forgiveness has been stifled by numerous lawsuits. While the judiciary wields significant power over the future of student loan debt relief, voters will soon have influence at the ballot box: student loan forgiveness could be handled very differently depending on who the country elects as its next President.
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There remains significant ambiguity about the path forward in either a Republican or a Democratic administration. Neither Vice President Kamala Harris or former President Donald Trump have laid out clear policy plans regarding their stance on student loans. But experts say much can be gleaned by each candidate’s actions in the last eight years.
Harris has touted the Biden Administration’s delivery on student loan forgiveness, promising to work on the “unreasonable burden of student loan debt” on her campaign website. Despite several student loan forgiveness roadblocks, the Biden Administration has been able to deliver more than $175 billion in student loan forgiveness for nearly 5 million Americans, according to a Thursday Department of Education press release. The Harris campaign declined to comment further on her plans.
Read More: Biden Can Move Forward With Student Loan Forgiveness. What Happens Next
Former President Trump has not included information about student loans on his campaign website, and the Trump campaign did not respond to requests for comment. His comments about Biden’s plans and some of his actions during his presidency indicate that student loan forgiveness could be rolled back if he wins a second term.
Here’s what to know about what a Harris or Trump presidency might mean for student loan forgiveness.
What Kamala Harris has said about student loans
On Thursday, Harris released a statement saying she was “proud” of the billions of student loan debt relief delivered in the last four years, the greatest forgiveness of any administration. “I will continue our work to lower costs, make higher education more affordable, and relieve the burden of student debt. I am fully committed to doing what is necessary to build an economy that works for every American,” Harris said.
Read More: Student Loan Payments Are Resuming This Fall. Here’s What to Do If You Can’t Pay
Harris also recently announced a proposal to make healthcare more affordable and accessible to Americans, including a plan to recruit 10,000 healthcare workers through incentives like student loan repayment programs. (The Harris campaign did not comment on questions about the specifics of this plan.)
Aissa Canchola Bañez, policy director at the Student Borrower Protection Center, says she believes a Harris administration would fight to keep the Saving on a Valuable Education (SAVE) program, parts of which are on pause due to a federal court injunction, in the courts. And she believes Harris would continue to work on the broader student loan debt relief Biden promised. “It’s so easy for folks to forget that the Biden-Harris Administration is still working on their plan B student loan debt relief proposal, which is being done under the Higher Education Act, and is currently going through all of the administrative procedures required under the law,” said Canchola Bañez. “I would want to stress that the fight for debt relief is still ongoing, and proposals are in the works right now.”
What Donald Trump has said about student loans
Trump has previously spoken in favor of the Supreme Court’s decision to overturn Biden’s broader relief, which would have forgiven up to $20,000 in debt for some borrowers. “The U.S. Supreme Court handed down massive wins for the American people—halting Joe Biden’s unconstitutional student loan gimmick, restoring fairness to the college admissions process, and applying the strongest safeguards to First Amendment rights in a generation,” the Trump campaign said about the Supreme Court’s decision in a July 2023 press release. “One thing is clear: these wins were only made possible through President Trump’s strong nomination of three distinguished and courageous jurists to the Supreme Court.”
In a June rally in Wisconsin, Trump called Biden’s broader loan debt relief plan “vile,” and ongoing lawsuits trying to stop Biden’s student loan relief programs were all brought forward by Republican-led states.
Read More: Why Higher Ed Is Scared of a Second Trump Term
Congress did enact a student loan payment pause during the pandemic under the Trump Administration, which was extended at least once. But the Trump Administration delivered several barriers to student loan debt forgiveness. Then-Secretary of Education Betsy DeVos rewrote the Borrower Defense to Repayment, which discharges federal student loans if a school misled a student or “engaged in other misconduct in violation of certain state laws.” That revision only allowed borrowers to have three cents of every dollar they spent on their higher education forgiven, despite their college or university’s illegal activity. (President Joe Biden reversed that policy in 2021.)
Under the Trump Administration, 99% of applicants were denied Public Service Loan Forgiveness (PSLF). Tens of thousands of borrowers did not receive debt cancellation even though they were already entitled to relief. And some Massachusetts borrowers who were in the process of seeking student loan relief had their tax refunds wrongfully seized, according to NBC News.
Trump has said that he has “nothing to do with Project 2025,” but the 900-page text was put forth as a blueprint for the next Republican president, and includes policies like shutting down the Department of Education, denying loan access to noncitizens or those that are not permanent residents, reviewing Biden’s changes to income-driven repayment plans, which deliver more affordable student loan repayment programs for borrowers, and more.
“Under the Trump administration, I think borrowers are particularly at risk,” says Canchola Bañez. “It’s very unlikely that the Trump Administration would even want to continue to defend these programs in court, and I think that they would get to work on chipping away at the systems and programs that the Biden-Harris Administration has worked so hard to improve.”