🎓💵 What is in Biden’s new student debt relief plan?

President Biden's new student debt relief plan, designed to follow Supreme Court guidelines, aims to reduce loans for over 30 million Americans, potentially boosting his appeal with younger voters.

📸: Instagram/potus

Over 30 million Americans would see a reduction in the amount of money owed on federal student loans as part of a new student debt plan President Biden rolled out this week to attract young voters. 

“Too many people feel the strain and stress, wondering if they can get married, have their first child, start a family, because even if they get by, they still have this crushing, crushing debt,” Biden said during a visit to Madison Area Technical College in Wisconsin.

Biden has touted student loan forgiveness since his 2020 presidential campaign, but has faced roadblocks along the way. In 2023, the Supreme Court ruled 6-3 to block Biden’s plan to forgive $400,000 total in student loans.

This new plan was designed to meet principles laid out by the Supreme Court justices in the 2023 decision, which said Biden’s original plan was too broad and not based on clear legal authority provided by Congress.

Of the over 30 million Americans who would see a reduction in the amount of money owed, over four million Americans would see the entirety of their undergraduate or graduate loans erased. Ten million borrowers would see $5,000 or more in debt relief, according to the White House press release.

Biden’s new plan targets five types of borrowers.

For those whose loans have grown because of interest, up to $20,000 of the interest would be erased and they would only have to repay the original borrowed amount, according to The New York Times. Those making less than $120,000 a year could have all interest erased.

Those who have been paying off federal student loans for over 20 years would automatically have the debt canceled, and graduate students who have been repaying borrowed money for over 25 years would have their debt canceled, according to The New York Times. Those who borrowed money from colleges that are not eligible to participate in the federal student aid program would have their debt canceled.

Under the new plan, the nearly two million borrowers who meet the current qualifications to have their student loans waived, but have not yet applied for relief, would see their debt canceled. The plan would not actually take effect until 2025, according to VOX.

The plan may garner votes from young voters. According to a recent survey of 3,812 registered voters, 70% of Gen Z respondents said the action was “very” or “somewhat” important.

Election results in Wisconsin, a swing state, are driven largely by young voters in the urban areas of Milwaukee and Madison. Since 2000, Wisconsin has voted Democratic 83.3% of the time and Republican 16.7%, but recent national polling shows Biden trailing two points behind Republican candidate Donald Trump among Millennial and Gen-Z voters.