TOPEKA — President Joe Biden on Monday announced new steps to help more than 30 million people from student loan debt.
On social media, Kansas Attorney General Kris Kobach criticized the plan and posted a recent interview he did to explain why he's against Biden's effort.
Young voters have been impatient for Biden to follow through on his campaign promise to slash debt after the U.S. Supreme Court foiled his initial plan last year. The new plan is smaller and would expand federal student loan relief to new categories of borrowers.
Biden said he wanted to “give everybody a fair shot” and the “freedom to chase their dreams” as he lamented the rising cost of higher education.
“Even when they work hard and pay their student loans, their debt increases and not diminishes," he said. "Too many people feel the strain and stress, wondering if they can get married, have their first child, start a family, because even if they get by, they still have this crushing, crushing debt.”
Republicans said Biden's plan shifts the financial burden of college tuition onto taxpayers who didn't take out loans to attend school, and Kobach accused him of trying to twist the law “beyond recognition.”
Biden's new plan would expand federal student loan relief to five new categories of borrowers through the Higher Education Act, which administration officials believe puts it on a stronger legal footing than the sweeping proposal that was killed by a 6-3 court majority last year.
The plan is smaller and more targeted than Biden's original plan, which would have canceled up to $20,000 in loans for more than 40 million borrowers. The new plan would cancel some or all federal student loans for more than 30 million Americans, the White House said. The Education Department plans to issue a formal proposal in the coming months, with plans to start implementing parts of the plan as early as this fall.
The plan’s widest-reaching benefit would cancel up to $20,000 in interest for borrowers who have seen their balance grow beyond its original amount due to what Biden described as “runaway” interest. That part of the plan would forgive at least some unpaid interest for an estimated 25 million borrowers, with 23 million getting all their interest erased, according to the White House.
An additional 2 million borrowers would automatically have their loans canceled because they’re eligible but have not applied for other forgiveness programs, such as Public Service Loan Forgiveness.
Borrowers who have been repaying their undergraduate student loans for at least 20 years would be eligible to have any remaining debt canceled, along with those repaying graduate school loans for 25 years or more.
The plan would forgive debt for those who were in college programs deemed to have “low financial value.” It’s meant to help those who were in programs that ended up becoming ineligible to receive federal student aid or programs found to have cheated students.