Savannah Britt owes about $27,000 on loans she took out to attend college at Rutgers University, a debt she was hoping to see reduced by President Joe Biden’s student loan forgiveness efforts.
Her payments are currently on hold while courts untangle challenges to the loan forgiveness program. But as the weeks tick down on Biden's time in office, she could soon face a monthly payment of up to $250.
"With this new administration, the dream is gone. It’s shot,” said Britt, 30, who runs her own communications agency. “I was hopeful before Tuesday. I was waiting out the process. Even my mom has a loan that she took out to support me. She owes about $18,000, and she was in the process of it being forgiven, but it’s at a standstill.”
President-elect Donald Trump and his fellow Republicans have criticized Biden's loan forgiveness efforts, and lawsuits by GOP-led states have held up plans for widespread debt cancellation. Trump has not said what he would do on loan forgiveness, leaving millions of borrowers facing uncertainty over their personal finances.
The economy was an important issue in the election, helping to propel Trump to victory. But for borrowers, concerns about their finances extend beyond inflation to include their student debt, said Persis Yu, managing counsel for the Student Borrower Protection Center.
“That’s a big part of what is making life unaffordable for them is this burden of expenses that they can’t seem to get out from under,” Yu said.
Student loan cancellation was not a focus of the campaign for either Trump or Vice President Kamala Harris, who steered clear of the issue at her political events. The issue came up just once in the September presidential debate, when Trump hammered Harris and Biden for failing to deliver their promise of widespread forgiveness. Trump called it a “total catastrophe” that “taunted young people.”
Biden promised the student loan cancellation program during his run for the presidency. From its launch, Biden's loan forgiveness faced relentless pushback from opponents who said it heaped advantage on elites and came at the expense of those who repaid their loans or did not attend college.
Biden’s first plan to cancel up to $20,000 for millions of people was blocked by the Supreme Court last year. A second, narrower plan has been halted by a federal judge after Republican-led states sued. A separate policy intended to lower loan payments for struggling borrowers has been paused by a judge, also after Republican-controlled states challenged it.
Overall, Biden's efforts were relatively unpopular, even among those with student loans. Three in 10 U.S. adults said they approved of how Biden had handlined student loan debt, according to a poll this spring from the University of Chicago Harris School of Public Policy and The Associated Press-NORC Center for Public Affairs Research. Four in 10 disapproved. The others were neutral or didn’t know enough to say.
Project 2025, the blueprint for a hard-right turn in American government that aligns with some Trump priorities, calls for getting the federal government out of the student loan business and doing away with repayment plans that pre-date the Biden administration.
Even without directly addressing student loans, Trump has made promises that would affect them. He has pledged to eliminate the U.S. Department of Education, which manages the $1.6 trillion federal student loan portfolio. It's unclear which entity would take that responsibility if the department were eliminated, which would require approval from Congress.
Yu noted the Biden administration managed to cancel student loans for about 5 million borrowers, even though the signature forgiveness effort has been blocked. The administration did it by leaning into loan cancellation programs already in effect. For example, an existing student loan forgiveness program for public service workers has granted relief to more than 1 million Americans, up from just 7,000 who were approved before it was updated by the Biden administration two years ago.
“A lot of the cancellation that we saw in the last couple of years was because the Biden administration was committed to making the programs that are actually enshrined in law work for people," Yu said.
Sabrina Calazans, 27, owes about $30,000 on federal student loans from her college days at Arcadia University in Pennsylvania. Her payments also have been on hold, but she could soon face a monthly payment of over $300.
“As a first-generation American, I live at home with my family, I contribute to our household finances, and that payment is a lot for me and so many others like me,” said Calazans, who is originally from Brazil.
In her role as managing director for Student Debt Crisis Center, Calazans said she has been telling people to stay up to date on developments by using the loan simulator on the Federal Student Aid website and reading updated information on forgiveness qualifications and repayment programs.
“There’s a lot of confusion about student loans," Calazans said, and not just among young people. "We’re seeing a lot of parents take out more debt for their children to be able to go to school. We’re seeing older folks go back to school and having to take out loans as well.”
Associated Press education writer Collin Binkley in Washington, D.C.. contributed to this report.
The Associated Press’ education coverage receives financial support from multiple private foundations. AP is solely responsible for all content. Find AP’s standards for working with philanthropies, a list of supporters and funded coverage areas at AP.org.
FILE - People demonstrate outside the Supreme Court, June 30, 2023, in Washington. (AP Photo/Jacquelyn Martin, File)
Nov. 1-7, 2024
Democratic presidential nominee Vice President Kamala Harris looks at a monitor of the event from backstage, before taking the stage for her final campaign rally in Philadelphia. Republican presidential nominee former President Donald Trump, joined by former first lady Melania Trump and their son, Barron Trump, arrives to speak at an election night watch party in West Palm Beach, Florida. Harris lost the 2024 United States presidential election to Donald Trump, conceding to the Republican president-elect after a hard-fought campaign.
Flash floods caused by heavy downpours in eastern Spain, mostly located in the southern outskirts of the city of Valencia, swept away almost everything in their path. With no time to react, people were trapped in vehicles, homes and businesses. Many died and thousands of livelihoods were shattered.
Protesters lit bonfires and held Israeli flags after Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu dismissed Defense Minister Yoav Gallant in a surprise announcement in Tel Aviv, Israel.
This photo gallery, curated by AP photo editors, highlights some of the most compelling images from around the world made or published by The Associated Press in the past week.
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A child reaches out to touch a sculpture at a cafe with a bath house theme along the popular Wangfujing shopping street in Beijing, Friday, Nov. 1, 2024. (AP Photo/Ng Han Guan)
A photographer lies on the ground to take a picture of Britain's Prince William greeting pupils at the Ocean View Secondary School in Cape Town, South Africa, Monday, Nov. 4, 2024. (AP Photo/Jerome Delay-pool)
People drive along a road littered with fallen power lines after the passing of Hurricane Rafael in San Antonio de los Banos, Cuba, Thursday, Nov. 7, 2024. (AP Photo/Ramon Espinosa)
People stand in the early morning smog next to a bridge over Yamuna river covered in pollutants, the day after the Hindu festival Diwali, in New Delhi, India, Friday, Nov. 1, 2024. (AP Photo/Manish Swarup)
In this photo released by Xinhua News Agency, astronaut Ye Guangfu waves near the re-entry capsule of the Shenzhou-18 manned space mission after it landed successfully at the Dongfeng landing site in northern China's Inner Mongolia Autonomous Region in the early Monday, Nov. 4, 2024. (Li Xin/Xinhua via AP)
A Nepalese woman offers prayers to the setting sun on the bank of Bagmati River during the Chhath Puja festival in Kathmandu, Nepal, Thursday, Nov. 7, 2024. (AP Photo/Niranjan Shrestha)
A view of The Rink at Rockefeller Center, as seen from several stories up inside Rockefeller Center, Saturday, Nov. 2, 2024, in New York, as Democratic presidential nominee Vice President Kamala Harris made an unannounced trip there to appear on an episode of NBC's "Saturday Night Live." (AP Photo/Jacquelyn Martin)
A rainbow stretches across the sky as a woman walks along the shore after swimming at the Mediterranean sea, in Tel Aviv, Israel, Monday, Nov. 4, 2024. (AP Photo/Francisco Seco)
Workers position floating booms while wet harvesting cranberries at Rocky Meadow Bog, Friday, Nov. 1, 2024, in Middleborough, Mass. (AP Photo/Charles Krupa)
West Indies' Matthew Forde celebrates taking the wicket of England's Will Jacks during the third ODI cricket match at Kensington Oval in Bridgetown, Barbados, Wednesday, Nov. 6, 2024. (AP Photo/Ricardo Mazalan)
Bolivia's former President Evo Morales chews coca in Lauca N, Chapare region, Bolivia, Sunday, Nov. 3, 2024, amid an ongoing political conflict with the government of President Luis Arce. (AP Photo/Juan Karita)
People at a bus stop shield themselves with cardboard amid wind and rain during the passage of Hurricane Rafael in Havana, Cuba, Wednesday, Nov. 6, 2024. (AP Photo/Ramon Espinosa)
Jackson Vargas, who left Venezuela after the country's disputed election, holds his daughter along the shore in Necocli, Colombia, as they save money ahead of traversing the Darien Gap, Monday, Oct. 14, 2024. (AP Photo/Matias Delacroix)
A protester holds an Israeli flag as Israelis light a bonfire during a protest after Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has dismissed his defense minister Yoav Gallant in a surprise announcement in Tel Aviv, Israel, Tuesday, Nov. 5, 2024. (AP Photo/Francisco Seco)
Firefighters and sheriff's deputies push a vintage car away from a burning home as the Mountain Fire burns in Camarillo, Calif., on Wednesday, Nov. 6, 2024. (AP Photo/Noah Berger)
Civil Guards check cars for bodies in an indoor car park after floods in Paiporta, near Valencia, Spain, Monday, Nov. 4, 2024. (AP Photo/Alberto Saiz)
Dolores Merchan, 67, reacts in tears as she is assisted by volunteers clearing mud from her home, where she has lived all her life with her husband and three children, and which has been severely affected by the floods in Masanasa, Valencia, Spain, Thursday, Nov. 7, 2024. (AP Photo/Emilio Morenatti)
Vehicles pile up in the streets after flooding caused by late Tuesday and early Wednesday storm that left hundreds dead or missing in Alfafar, Valencia region, Spain, Saturday, Nov. 2, 2024. (AP Photo/Angel Garcia)
Shamans perform a good luck ritual holding posters of Democratic presidential nominee Vice President Kamala Harris and Republican presidential nominee former President Donald Trump, at the beach in Lima, Peru, Tuesday, Nov. 5, 2024. (AP Photo/Martin Mejia)
With tears streaming down her face, a supporter of Democratic presidential nominee Vice President Kamala Harris applauds as Harris delivers a concession speech after the 2024 presidential election, Wednesday, Nov. 6, 2024, on the campus of Howard University in Washington. (AP Photo/Jacquelyn Martin)
Supporters cheer at an election night watch party for Republican Montana Senate candidate Tim Sheehy, Wednesday, Nov. 6, 2024, in Bozeman, Mont. (AP Photo/Tommy Martino)
A voter works on her ballot at a polling place at the Ronald Reagan Presidential Library on Election Day, Tuesday, Nov. 5, 2024, in Simi Valley, Calif. (AP Photo/Chris Pizzello)
Voters stand in line outside a polling place at Madison Church, Tuesday, Nov. 5, 2024, in Phoenix, Ariz. (AP Photo/Matt York)
Republican presidential nominee former President Donald Trump arrives at an election night watch party at the Palm Beach Convention Center, Wednesday, Nov. 6, 2024, in West Palm Beach, Fla. (AP Photo/Julia Demaree Nikhinson)
Republican presidential nominee former President Donald Trump, joined by Melania Trump, left, and Barron Trump, arrives to speak at an election night watch party, Wednesday, Nov. 6, 2024, in West Palm Beach, Fla. (AP Photo/Alex Brandon)
A young girl holds a "Black Voters for Harris-Walz" sign outside of Democratic presidential nominee Vice President Kamala Harris' election night watch party at Howard University, Tuesday, Nov. 5, 2024, in Washington. (AP Photo/Terrance Williams)
Republican presidential nominee former President Donald Trump watches a video screen at a campaign rally at the Salem Civic Center, Saturday, Nov. 2, 2024, in Salem, Va. (AP Photo/Evan Vucci)
Democratic presidential nominee Vice President Kamala Harris looks at a monitor of the event from backstage, just before taking the stage for her final campaign rally, Monday, Nov. 4, 2024, in Philadelphia. (AP Photo/Jacquelyn Martin)
