Ever since Joe Biden began his presidential run in 2019, one of his campaign promises was student loan forgiveness. The issue of high student loan prices is high on the list of priorities for many voters, since student loan debt impacts a significant portion of the country. Since Biden was elected president, many eyes have been on him to see if he would follow through on his campaign promises. In November, Biden made a large stride in that promise by sending a student loan forgiveness email to hundreds of thousands of borrowers.
Around 13% of the U.S. population has student loan debt, according to the Federal Reserve’s Consumer Credit Report. During his 2020 presidential campaign, Biden pledged to eliminate the student loan debt of anyone making less than $125,000 a year, as well as to remove $10,000 from every person’s total debt.
On Nov. 28, 2023, the Biden administration announced that 813,000 more borrowers would receive an email saying that their student loans were forgiven. The email comes from President Biden, and states, “Congratulations — your student loan has been forgiven because of actions my administration took to make sure you receive the relief you earned and deserve.”
Some borrowers were confused and skeptical when they received the email, according to videos they posted on TikTok. The layout for different student loan providers did not always show that the loan had been forgiven, so borrowers had to search to make sure the email was legitimate. The email is titled “A Message From President Biden.” Despite the confusion, some of the people who received the email from President Biden took to social media to share how happy they were that their debt had been forgiven.
This latest debt cancellation is just one of the measures President Biden has taken toward student loan relief. Already, Biden has erased more student debt than any president before him — $127 billion from over 3.5 million borrowers. In August 2023, the Biden administration announced the SAVE Repayment Plan, a plan that bases an individual’s payment amount on their income and family size. The plan was utilized by nearly 5.5 million borrowers, including 2.9 million who have $0 payments.
Biden has had some trouble providing the relief that he promised. In July, the Supreme Court struck down Biden’s student loan forgiveness plan in a 6-3 decision. The plan, which would have erased over $430 billion in student debt and lowered the median amount of non-forgiven loan repayments from $29,400 to $13,600, was not authorized because of the majority opinion, made up of Chief Justice John Roberts and Justices Neil Gorsuch, Clarence Thomas, Samuel Alito, Amy Coney Barrett, and Brett Kavanaugh.
The majority ruled that the Secretary of Education does not have the authority to establish the student debt relief plan. The dissent was written by Justice Elena Kagan, who was joined by Justices Sonia Sotomayor and Ketanji Brown Jackson. Kagan argued in her dissent that the Court should not have heard this case at all, as the challenging states lacked standing.
Biden has also received criticism for his actions to relieve student loan debt, largely from his Republican challengers for the 2024 election. Former president Donald Trump sided with the Supreme Court this summer, stating, “Today, the Supreme Court also ruled that President Biden cannot wipe out hundreds of billions, perhaps trillions of dollars, in student loan debt, which would have been very unfair to the millions and millions of people who paid their debt through hard work and diligence; very unfair.”
Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis, another 2024 presidential candidate, is also against student loan forgiveness. At a campaign event in Iowa in August, he asked, “Why should a truck driver have to pay for somebody that got a degree in zombie studies?”
Criticism has come from Democratic voters, as well. Many were disappointed that Biden’s biggest relief plan was struck down in the Supreme Court, and they were also frustrated that Biden had not followed through on his campaign promises. Biden’s approval rating among Democrats hit a record low in October 2023, a risky jump considering the 2024 presidential election is less than one year away.
Biden’s email to the 813,000 people impacted by the debt relief also read, “I’ve heard from countless people who have told me that relieving the burden of student loan debt will allow them to support themselves and their families, or move forward with life plans they’ve put on hold.”