One Nashville borrower on what Biden’s student debt forgiveness means for her

Tennesseans carry more than $30 billion in student loan debt. But President Biden’s forgiveness plan announced Wednesday will make a dent in that figure.

The president announced that borrowers earning $125,000 per year or less will be eligible for up to $10,000 in forgiveness under the plan. Those who used Pell grants to attend college — students with high financial need — can have up to $20,000 in debt forgiven.

Hailee B. Roye falls into the latter category. She graduated from Tennessee State University with about $35,000 in student loan debt. And by the time she earns her master’s degree from Vanderbilt University in the spring, Roye says, “I’ll probably owe $111,000.”

So when she heard the news from the White House, she had mixed emotions.

“It’s like a bittersweet type of thing. It’s sweet, like 20K knocked off. You know, that may be like a year or two knocked off that I have to pay. But it’s also like, now, I still have 80 grand left. So how am I going to pay this back?”

In keeping with my campaign promise, my Administration is announcing a plan to give working and middle class families breathing room as they prepare to resume federal student loan payments in January 2023.

I'll have more details this afternoon. pic.twitter.com/kuZNqoMe4I

— President Biden (@POTUS) August 24, 2022

Still, Roye says she has friends and classmates whose student loan balances will be almost completely wiped out by the plan. One in eight Tennesseans has student loan debt, and among them, the average amount is more than $36,000.

Biden’s plan may make repayment easier for borrowers too. It would allow folks with undergraduate loans to cap their payments at 5% of their monthly income.

And speaking of those monthly bills, they won’t start up again until January.

NPR reports it’s likely that most people will have to submit some sort of documentation in order to have their loans forgiven. About 8 million borrowers across the country have income data already on file with the U.S. Department of Education, but the remaining 35 million or so will need to apply. More details are expected in the coming weeks.

It’s also possible the plan could face challenges in court, though Biden’s team has published a document explaining its legal authority. Many Republican lawmakers have blasted the plan on social media. Some of them, including Tennessee Sen. Marsha Blackburn, say it will lead to worse inflation, but economists have mixed opinions on that. Other critics point out that the plan does not address the ballooning costs of higher education in general.