A federal judge in Georgia declined to block President Joe Biden’s second attempt at broader debt relief and transferred that case to a Missouri federal court. The move could open the door for more than 20 million Americans to see their student loans debt discharged.
Brad Smith sits down with Betsy Mayotte, president and founder of the Institute of Student Loan Advisors, on Wealth! to discuss what the news means for borrowers.
“I’m certainly more cautiously optimistic than I was. We have to remember that the judge is just sort of moved this to a different court. So the fight is not over yet, but it is possible that some borrowers may see some see some relief sooner rather than later,” Mayotte tells Yahoo Finance.
She says, “Because of what’s been happening over the last couple of years with these Republican states and these types of debt relief, I do expect they will probably try to file another suit. The question is whether they can show that they have standing and if they can’t, then this debt relief can go forward and it may be able to go forward in the meantime.”
“It’s important to clarify that what this relief does for most borrowers. It’s not going to forgive all their loans. The most borrowers that would benefit from this would be people who owe more now than when they first went into repayment. And with this debt relief would do was sort of bring them back to where they started, [rather than] forgive the whole thing. There are some borrowers that who have been paying for decades that would get full relief, but most people that would get this benefit would just sort of see them be brought back to where they started, which is still a great thing.”
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This post was written by Naomi Buchanan.