Cardona talks about Biden plan to ease anxiety over resuming student loan payments

The Department of Education secretary tells theGrio the administration is working to make sure borrowers “know what options they have to help them get back on their feet.”

The Biden-Harris administration is leveling with student borrowers as loan payments are set to resume this fall after a years-long pause.

During a recent interview with theGrio, U.S. Education Secretary Miguel Cardona said President Joe Biden understands the economic anxiety many feel about paying back their student loans. However, he assured that even as payments resume, the Biden White House is committed to creating more pathways to debt relief.

President Joe Biden (left) is joined by Education Secretary Miguel Cardona as he speaks at the White House in August about student loan debt. This week, Cardona spoke with theGrio about the resumption of debt payments. (Photo by Alex Wong/Getty Images)

“We recognize that three years have passed through two administrations [and] there are people that are a little bit nervous,” Cardona told theGrio. “We tied the targeted debt relief plan that the president proposed to the pandemic, and we’re at the point now where we’re able to resume payments.”

As part of Biden’s debt ceiling agreement with Republicans to avert a historic default, the White House agreed to resume student loan payments on Oct. 1. But as the Biden-Harris administration prepares borrowers for returning to monthly student loan payments, civil rights advocates and members of Congress continue to call for more to bring relief to Black borrowers.

“While we appreciate actions taken to prevent the nation’s economic catastrophe, Black student loan borrowers will bear the weight of the debt ceiling compromise,” NAACP president Derrick Johnson and the group’s national director for youth and college, Wisdom Cole, said in a letter they sent to Biden on Wednesday.

The letter urges the administration to implement “comprehensive student loan debt forgiveness” for Black borrowers, who experts say disproportionately take on more debt, are more likely to default, take longer to pay it off, and subsequently have less access to wealth.

Advocates of debt relief caution that resuming payments coincides with a looming Supreme Court decision that could block up to $20,000 in student loan debt cancellation if the conservative-leaning court rules against the Biden administration.

Student debt relief advocates gather outside the Supreme Court on Feb. 28 as the court hears arguments over President Joe Biden’s student debt relief plan. (Photo by Patrick Semansky / AP)

If the court were to make such a ruling, NAACP leaders demanded that the White House “pursue all legal pathways to make a permanent solution” to the rising costs of higher education and ensure relief for the debt that comes with it. The organization also called on the administration to end “the cycle of pushing Black borrowers into poverty as they seek to share in the opportunities afforded by this nation.”

Cardona told theGrio that the Education Department has the needs of borrowers in mind as it rolls out its plan to “help not only decrease anxiety but make sure that people can be successful paying back loans.” He pointed to the agency’s income-driven repayment plan, which the Biden administration revamped in a new proposed rule that would cap monthly payments for undergraduate borrowers at 5% of discretionary income.

“That’s what we know our borrowers need,” Cardona told theGrio of the plan he says “we are working on.” He said the administration is also working to reach borrowers and make sure “they know what options they have to help them get back on their feet.”

He continued, “We don’t want people to go into default. We don’t want people to go on to bankruptcy. We need to make sure we’re doing it responsibly. And that’s what we’re going to do.”

As for the anticipated student debt ruling, Cardona said the Biden administration “put our best legal case forward.” However, he admits, “I can’t tell you where the Supreme Court’s going to land on this.”

As he’s said repeatedly since the case was taken up by the high court, Cardona reiterated that the president and the department are “not going to stop fighting” for borrowers, especially the 42% of Black borrowers they expect will have their debt completely forgiven.

President Joe Biden (left) and Secretary of Education Miguel Cardona exit after Biden gave an update on the student debt relief portal beta test. That was in October at the Eisenhower Executive Office Building in Washington. (Photo by Alex Wong/Getty Images)

“We’re always going to put our borrowers first. We’re always going to be fighting for them. And right now, we have complete confidence in this case,” said Cardona.

The NAACP had stark words for Biden in the event that the court ruled against the administration and jeopardized relief for Black borrowers.

“Absent further, swift action in the wake of an unfavorable ruling from the Court, Black voters stand to be incredibly disillusioned by an Administration who failed to deliver on key campaign promises,” the letter reads. The legacy civil rights group said such a court ruling would also widen the racial wealth gap and propel Black communities into “economic uncertainty.”

When asked about the letter during Wednesday’s press briefing, White House press secretary Karine Jean-Pierre told reporters that Biden “understands how his student debt relief plan is important to this community.”

“He’ll continue to fight for it, as we see DOJ doing,” said Jean-Pierre. She said the student debt forgiveness program is part of the president’s “economic policy” to ensure that “how we move forward on building back the economy … deals with it in an equitable way.”