Following President Biden’s executive order that would forgive an estimated $10,000 or more in federal student loans, a federal court placed a temporary block on the action to be reviewed. While applications are still open, there is a serious roadblock towards a major order on Biden’s agenda. 

According to White House statistics, since 1980, the total cost of four-year public and four-year private colleges has almost tripled; even after accounting for inflation. Federal support has not kept up: Pell Grants once covered close to eighty percent of the cost of a four-year public college degree for students from working families, but now only cover a third. That has left many students from low and middle-income families with no choice but to borrow if they want to get a degree. According to a Department of Education analysis, the typical undergraduate student with loans now graduates with nearly $25,000 in debt. 

Biden’s administration is announcing a three-part plan to provide relief to America’s working families as they continue to recover from the strains associated with the Covid pandemic. This plan offers targeted debt relief as part of a comprehensive effort to address the burden of growing college costs and to make the student loan system more manageable for working families. 

While the democrats are pushing for this to pass, the states of Nebraska, Missouri, Arkansas, Iowa, Kansas, and South Carolina sued the Biden Administration Thursday to block the president’s plan to “forgive” student loan debt. 

The lawsuit by the six states follows another one filed by the Pacific Legal Foundation on behalf of an individual borrower. These lawsuits claim that Joe Biden’s student loan forgiveness scheme is an illegal power grab. Biden and Education Secretary Miguel Cardona claimed to find authority for canceling some student loan debt in the 2003 HEROES Act, passed after the 9/11 terror attacks. That statute permits the secretary of education to act only when necessary to keep borrowers from being worse off with respect to their student loans as a direct result of an emergency. Moreover, it is doubtful that the HEROES Act authorizes mass debt cancellation under any circumstances. As a result of this, a federal court recently called for a temporary halt on this order, while it is reviewed to determine whether or not this was a legal and constitutional order administered by the president. The key proponent to this order is that it was not passed into legislation through Congress. Many would predict that if there were a bill to hit the floor of the House or Senate, it would not have nearly enough votes to be passed into law, thus explaining why Biden ordered it in the manner that he did. 

On the college front, several students wait in anticipation to see whether or not this order put in place by President Biden will actually come to fruition. Several students have thousands of dollars in federal loans, and surely they would like the financial burden of their the issue, quality Anselmian education. James Maloney, President of the College Democrats, spoke on saying, “There is a lot to be skeptical of because of the blocking, however, the Biden administration has made statements that those with federal loans should still apply. Since the application is still open, I think it’s worth a shot to receive forgiveness for those with loans, but we must see how this process evolves overtime. Though this is a great initiative, I also would not recommend putting all your eggs in one basket because of this block.”