President Biden’s next move on student loans has been a mystery, with the White House not communicating with advocates and instead keeping stakeholders in the dark while the president decides whether to forgive student loans on a large scale. Biden has said forgiving $10,000 in debt per borrower is on the table but keeps delaying making a final decision. Now, with the student loan pause ending next month and the midterm elections just a few months away, borrowers are unclear about what to expect.
“We have seen a shift in the desire from the White House to meet with advocates. If you’re not willing to meet with us at this point, you have to, at the very least, meet with borrowers,” said Natalia Abrams, president and founder of the Student Debt Crisis Center (SDCC).
The SDCC organized a petition this month to urge Biden to meet with borrowers before he makes a decision on cancellation. The petition, which has garnered more than 100,000 signatures, notes that it’s been more than a year since borrowers met with Education Secretary Miguel Cardona on the issue.
“We have been pushing to meet with the White House to discuss again why borrowers need to meet with the White House and have been met with a less than friendly, or neutral, response,” Abrams added.
White House press secretary Karine Jean-Pierre said on Tuesday that Biden will make a decision on student loan payments but that she would “let him speak.”
Biden in April extended a pandemic moratorium on federal student loan payments and interest accrual until Aug. 31. Biden told reporters last week that “the end of August” is his timeline for making a decision.
That follows more than a year of the president saying he will make a decision on student loans, amid pressure from progressives and advocates for a big portion of student loans to be forgiven, ranging from $10,000 to $50,000 to total cancellation.
“I think it’s really important for the administration to directly hear from those who are most impacted by the weight that student debt has on their lives,” said Wisdom Cole, national director of the NAACP Youth and College Division.
“When the administration hears the stories from borrowers, from folks who are teachers, from folks who work in various labor forces, folks who worked on the front line during this pandemic, they will hear how the more cancellation that they do, the better they are able to set up a future for — not just for some borrowers but for all borrowers and all Americans,” he added.
The lack of communication with advocates became evident this spring, following the president extending the freeze. Groups say that the administration, since then, has kept them in the dark.
One advocate said that the White House and Vice President Harris’s office have “totally ignored” requests for meetings and have “ghosted” them. Meanwhile, they said they were “pawned off to other people” when they asked the Department of Education for a meeting with Cardona.
Another described the White House as “disinterested with taking a meeting” and “reluctant to meet with advocates.”
“Canceling student debt should be an easy win, and instead Biden is in danger of turning it into a massive failure mere weeks before midterm elections in which the future of democracy is at stake. Now is the time to go big and bold,” said Thomas Gokey, organizer with the Debt Collective.
He also argued that Biden needs to be meeting with borrowers before he makes his decision.
“The White House is playing with fire and risking everything. It is unforgivable political malpractice. The president should meet with student debtors, and quick,” he said.
Other White House officials have been mum when asked for updates on student loans, including top economic adviser Brian Deese, who on Tuesday said he didn’t have anything new to share. The…