Question 1

When will the Supreme Court rule on student loan forgiveness?

Accepted Answer

An exact decision day is unknown, but the court will hand down a ruling before it adjourns — typically the end of June. You can follow the major case decisions here. Justices heard more than three hours of arguments about the debt relief plan on Feb. 28.

Question 2

When would student loan repayments resume?

Accepted Answer

Millions of federal student loan borrowers have not been required to pay off their debt since 2020 because of a payment pause instituted during the coronavirus pandemic. But the pause will end soon. Interest will begin accruing on education loans on Sept. 1, and payments will resume in October, according to the Education Department.

Question 3

Which lawsuits are challenging student loan forgiveness?

Accepted Answer

The first case, Biden v. Nebraska, was brought by Republican officials in Arkansas, Iowa, Kansas, Missouri, Nebraska and South Carolina. The original litigation alleges that the president is overstepping his authority and threatening the revenue of state entities that profit from federal student loans with the forgiveness plan. A lower court dismissed the suit, accepting the Biden administration’s argument that the states lacked standing to sue. But the U.S. Court of Appeals for the 8th Circuit decided that the states had standing, at least in the case of Missouri, to bring a challenge on behalf of the Missouri Higher Education Loan Authority, a quasi-state entity that owns and services federal student loans. The lawsuit asserts that under the relief plan, MOHELA, the Missouri entity that funds state scholarships, would improperly lose the revenue it receives from servicing Direct Loans — those made and owned by the federal government. The other lawsuit, U.S. Department of Education v. Brown, was filed by the Job Creators Network Foundation, a conservative group, on behalf of student loan borrowers Alexander Taylor and Myra Brown. Under the Biden plan, Taylor is eligible for $10,000 of debt relief, according to the complaint. But he does not qualify for an additional $10,000 in forgiveness reserved for recipients of Pell Grants, a form of federal aid for low-income students. Brown is ineligible for any forgiveness because her loans originated with the defunct Federal Family Education Loan (FFEL) program and are now held by private entities. Until late September, commercial FFEL borrowers such as Brown could consolidate their debt into a Direct Loan to become eligible for forgiveness. But the Education Department reversed that policy to try to head off legal challenges. A federal district judge declared the forgiveness program unlawful. The U.S. Court of Appeals for the 5th Circuit refused a request from the Education Department to put a hold on the ruling.

Question 4

Is Public Service Loan Forgiveness part of the lawsuits?

Accepted Answer

No. Neither Public Service Loan Forgiveness nor the temporary expansion of the program is being challenged in either lawsuit. Congress created PSLF in 2007 to encourage college graduates to enter public service, in exchange for having their remaining loan balance canceled after 120 on-time monthly payments for 10 years.

Question 5

Why is the president canceling student debt?

Accepted Answer

The Biden administration says that the coronavirus pandemic has done financial harm to student loan borrowers and that canceling a portion of their debt is critical to avoid a surge in delinquencies and defaults. Federal student loan payments have been on pause for the vast majority of borrowers since March 2020, when then-President Donald Trump declared a national emergency because of the public health crisis. And the Education Department expects that borrowers will struggle to manage their debt when payments resume. The agency analyzed historical data about borrowers who transitioned back to repayment after periods of forbearance, including postponement tied to natural disasters, and found that many fell behind on payments.

Question 6

Does the president have the authority to cancel student debt?

Accepted Answer

The answer depends on whom you ask. The Biden administration insists that a 2003 law used by the Trump administration to pause student loan payments during the coronavirus pandemic also provides the authority to cancel education debt. The Justice Department released a 25-page memo in August that says the Higher Education Relief Opportunities for Students Act (HEROES Act) authorizes the education secretary “to alleviate the hardship that federal student loan recipients may suffer as a result of national emergencies.” But opponents argue that the scale of loan cancellation, at a cost of nearly a half-trillion dollars, requires congressional authorization because of the political and economic significance. They say lawmakers who passed the HEROES Act in response to the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks never intended for the statute to be used in the manner that the Biden administration has proposed.

Question 7

How many people applied for forgiveness?

Accepted Answer

About 26 million people applied for debt relief before the program was shut down by the courts. The Education Department approved the applications of 16 million of those people but has not been able to proceed to canceling their debt.

Question 8

Can you still apply for student loan forgiveness?

Accepted Answer

No. The Education Department stopped accepting applications in light of the injunctions halting the program. It has encouraged borrowers to sign up for updates at studentaid.gov. Still, this is just one of the forgiveness programs out there. There are other programs from the federal government, states and private sector.

Question 9

How much would the forgiveness cost?

Accepted Answer

The nonpartisan Congressional Budget Office said the program would cost roughly $400 billion. If enacted, the forgiveness plan would immediately wipe out roughly $400 billion of assets on the federal government’s ledger. But because those assets had been expected to be repaid over a long time, the impact on federal budget deficits also would be stretched out. White House officials have argued that the impact of reduced loan payments would amount to less than $300 billion over the next decade and have said the CBO’s score should be looked at over a 30-year window.

What to know ahead of Supreme Court ruling on student loan forgiveness

Student loans