President Joe Biden announced his student loan forgiveness plan last August, and since then, lawsuits have stalled potential relief heading to Texas State University recipients.
Judge Mark Pittman, serving in the Northern District Court of Texas, blocked the bill, stopping the 2.1 million applicants in Texas from receiving relief.
“In this country, we are not ruled by an all-powerful executive with a pen and a phone,” Pittman wrote.“Instead, we are ruled by a Constitution that provides for three distinct and independent branches of government.”
The student loan forgiveness plan forgives up to $10,000 in student loans for Americans who made up to $125,000 a year. Loan recipients who received a Pell Grant, directed at low-income families, would receive $20,000 in relief.
Lecturer Mari Garza with the legal studies program, said she believed the bill was shortchanged by the way it was created, but the result isn’t wrong.
“There needs to be quick thinking to help make sure that the people are going to be taken care of,” Garza said. “I think that there should have been longer-term planning behind it.”
Garza said she is a big proponent of access and the benefits of the bill would outweigh costs of keeping debt, ultimately helping students and future generations.
Junior Emily Morgan, student senator at large, thought that the idea of student loan forgiveness is a good thing but that it is unfair for others who already paid off their debts.
“I think the judge ruling to pause is a good thing because it prevents that unfair nature,” Morgan said. “It shouldn’t be so expensive for people to get an education, but also that’s how it is here.”
Economic associate professor Emmanuel Alanís said that allowing the bill to pass would help current and former students by allowing them the opportunity to take out other loans to build equity such as a mortgage, instead of having to pay back student loans.
“The worst part about it is just the uncertainty, whether it will pass, or it won’t pass,” Alanís said. “If the bill passes it will just be one step, you never know what’s [going to] come next.”
According to Alanís, if the bill passes then it could potentially decrease the costs of those who qualify for it, but at the same time could increase the costs of those who don’t qualify.
Alanís said putting the bill on hold is beneficial for communication in the legal dispute to determine if the bill is illegal before allowing the 2.1 million people in Texas to get relief.
Garza added calling something, like the bill, “unlawful” should be backed up by ample reasoning, and she believes that judges are often scolded for being lawmakers when many believe that their job is to interpret the law.
“I don’t think the greater good is really being considered and I do believe that politics, unfortunately, is playing a huge deal into it,” Garza said. “Even partial forgiveness would do something over no forgiveness.”