After the Supreme Court’s 6-3 vote on July 30 halted all actions of Biden’s student loan forgiveness program, millions of people in America are left wondering how they will pay their student loans off again.
The program initially intended to cancel around $430 billion in federal student loans, wiping out debt for around 20 million borrowers, as stated in Biden v. Nebraska.
The conclusion of the case was that the Secretary of Education does not have the power under the Higher Education Relief Opportunities for Students Act of 2003 (Heroes Act) to initiate the student loan forgiveness plan.
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Moving forward, organizations like the Department of Education are still looking for ways to help students and former students pay off loans.
When the Daily Egyptian asked several students and alumni with loan debt about the ruling earlier, the response was mostly that they felt like they’d be paying their student loans back until their middle age.
Dental hygiene student Alyssa Steinkamp said in a previous Daily Egyptian article, “I might have to keep paying these loans until I’m almost 50, probably later than that. It stresses me out.”
Steinkamp talked about being in a program like dental hygiene and the additional fees she has to pay along with her education.
“We have an additional 10-15k dollar cost for our program,” Steinkamp said. “That could definitely affect someone’s decision.”
SIU students were expecting relief from this program, and now turn back to school resources for the answers.
Director of Financial Aid Elyse Weller said because of SIU’s variety of financial resources, the Supreme Court ruling will not stop financial aid from helping students get the funding needed for their education.
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“This year, coming up for [2023-24] will be the sixth year that we have not increased tuition for undergraduates,” Weller said. “We’ve also initiated a program for Illinois residents called Saluki Commitment, with money from Illinois Students Assistance Commission.”
The program is called Aim High with the purpose of aiding in closing the financial gap for Illinois students to afford to come to SIU, Weller said.
“We also have a great merit-based scholarship program for new freshmen and transfer students,” Weller said. “Pretty much anybody that meets the admission requirements is going to get some type of merit-based scholarship.”
She said there’s also funding for fully online students with partnering community colleges.
“If they [students] can work with one of our partner community colleges on a transfer path and then you know, we fund them for $4,000 a year for two years,” Weller said. “They don’t even have to actually move to Illinois to campus because we have partners in Texas [and] other states.”
Weller believes the Department of Education does a good job of helping loan holders to pay off student loan debt.
“The first few years you’re out of college, it’s going to always be based, you know, on your prior tax return, your tax information,” Weller said. “When you graduate, even if you do have debt, it’s not like you’re going to be expected to pay an exorbitant amount of money because you can get into one of their great income-based repayment plans.”
To find more information for how to pay for your student loans, you can go to the U.S. Department of Education website.
The Daily Egyptian Editorial Board can be reached at [email protected]. To stay up to date with all your southern Illinois news, follow the Daily Egyptian on Facebook and Twitter.
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