![]() “The cost of education has gotten so high that students in my community, children from my background, are actively deciding not to go to college because they do not see the financial benefit in their lives or in their in your family's lives,” Galindo said, acknowledging that even he has questioned whether college is worth it. “My family instilled in me the need for education as a way to escape oppression, both in their country and in this one,” said Galindo, an organizer with a union of borrowers known as the Debt Collective.īy the time Galindo completed his undergraduate degree, he had nearly $30,000 in student loan debt. His father, who shares his son’s name, Galindo noted, can’t read or write. Manuel Galindo said he grew up in one of Los Angeles’s poorest neighborhoods, raised by parents who fled war-torn El Salvador. Some borrowers stressed that the Education Department should prioritize people who have been told their loans could be forgiven but have yet to see that happen.īut many others argued such parameters – limiting relief to specific populations – only allows the country’s larger student debt crisis to fester. ![]() “However, I do hold you accountable for making meaningful changes to uphold your own mission statement.”īiden's Plan B on debt forgiveness It could take an excruciatingly long time Should all student loan debt be cancelled? Take one speaker, a family therapist with the screenname T Davis, who for decades worked in public service but because of various life circumstances hasn’t secured relief. “I don't hold this current administration of the Department of Education responsible for the (actions of) previous administrations – this administration offers hope where there hadn't been any for decades,” Davis said. Some of Tuesday’s speakers were pointed in their frustration with the Biden administration’s fits and starts on student loan forgiveness. “I really urge everyone who will be on this committee – everyone at the Department of Education, everyone in the administration – to ensure that everyone that was promised the relief last August gets the relief they were promised,” said Byrne, who's also a student loan cancellation organizer and advocate. She and some 26 million fellow borrowers quickly signed up for forgiveness.īut then, of course, that plan was squashed – various entities quickly sued the administration over its maneuver, putting that plan on pause and then ultimately striking it down for good with the Supreme Court’s ruling in June. Last summer, when Biden announced he’d use an emergency lever to cancel the student loan debt of tens of thousands of Americans, that dream of a comfortable life at last felt like it was in reach. She said she did as she was told, completing her higher education, but has found in the years since that things aren’t so simple: Living a comfortable middle-class existence isn’t guaranteed when you grew up without generational wealth and are still struggling to pay off the debt, not to mention the interest that’s accompanied it. Raised by a single mother in a low-income household, Melissa Byrne was always told that a four-year college degree was her only shot at the middle class. ![]() Here are five key takeaways: Borrowers to Biden: ‘Promises made should be promises kept’ The speakers’ commentary hints at some of the key themes that will likely arise as the Biden administration works to make this backup relief plan a reality. But through neg reg, members of the public have greater opportunity than they did with Biden’s first plan to opine on the issue and help shape student loan relief policies. ![]() And this path, too, is likely to face legal challenges. The neg reg process is long and complex, as USA TODAY has detailed, and will next involve the creation of a committee that will negotiate actual changes to the rule. Biden’s original plan for doing so relied on a separate law that gives the president authority during national emergencies – a strategy that garnered lawsuits and was last month struck down by the U.S. The administration’s hope is that this process, known as negotiated rulemaking (or “neg reg” or “reg neg” for short), will result in changes to the country’s primary higher education law that enable widespread student loan debt forgiveness. The four hour-long, livestreamed hearing was the first step in a process that President Joe Biden is tapping as part of his revamped effort to provide broad relief. Dozens of people, most of them student loan borrowers and many holding back tears, on Tuesday implored the federal Education Department to finally do something about their debt. ![]()
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