Student Debt

The Missouri Higher Education Loan Authority — MOHELA — is named 85 times in the U.S. Supreme Court’s opinion striking down the Biden administration's student loan forgiveness program. The ruling affects more than 777,000 Missourians with federal student loans who would have received $10,000-$20,000 of relief.

On Friday, the Supreme Court handed down a decision that dismayed millions of people who were hoping for debt relief through President’s Biden program. Many of those borrowers live in the Midwest states that brought the case to the high court.

On Tuesday, the justices will hear expedited arguments in a challenge to the Biden plan brought by six states — Missouri, Nebraska, Iowa, Arkansas, Kansas and South Carolina.

Why has student loan debt policy stagnated while the needs of American college students and graduates become more complex? The answer is frustratingly predictable.

The program to erase student loan debts for millions of borrowers hit a brick wall Thursday when it was blocked by a U.S. District Court judge. The administration quickly appealed the decision.

Justice Amy Coney Barrett, who is assigned to the Seventh Circuit Court of Appeals, was the one who received the emergency application brought by a Wisconsin taxpayers group.

Six states, including Missouri and Kansas, are arguing that the Biden administration's debt relief plan harms entities that service the loans and treasuries that would benefit from taxes on forgiven debt.

The Biden administration has quietly changed its guidance to disqualify borrowers who have privately-held FFEL and Perkins loans.

In a letter to Biden, Republican governors say they support "making higher education more affordable" but don't want to "force American taxpayers to pay off the student loan debt of an elite few."

President Biden announced a sweeping effort to forgive up to $20,000 of federal student loan debt for Pell Grant recipients, and up to $10,000 for other borrowers making under $125,000 a year.