The NAACP sent an open letter to President Biden on Tuesday admonishing his agreement to end the pause on federal student loan payments as part of negotiations with Speaker Kevin McCarthy (R-Calif.) to resolve the debt ceiling crisis.
The organization said the ramifications will only perpetuate a cycle of poverty disproportionately affecting Black Americans.
Though the debt limit deal, which Biden signed earlier this month, was “wholeheartedly welcomed,” wrote NAACP CEO and President Derrick Johnson and youth and college division Director Wisdom Cole, they are “disappointed that the needs of Black communities have suffered from the negotiated agreement that will erode economic progress for Black Americans.”
“Given the Administration’s stated focus on equity, it is disappointing that narrowing the racial wealth gap was not given a higher priority,” the two said.
Student loan repayments were paused by then-President Trump in early 2020 as the nation reeled from the effects of the economic crisis caused by the COVID-19 pandemic. The pause has been extended several times, but the Biden-McCarthy agreement locks in its termination; payments are now set to resume in October.
“So that is another victory because that brings in $5 billion each month to the American public,” McCarthy said on Fox News after the deal was announced.
In August, Biden also announced a plan to cancel up to $10,000 in federal loan debt and up to $20,000 for recipients of Pell Grants, which are awarded to low-income students. Nearly 60 percent of Pell Grant recipients are Black students.
But Biden’s debt forgiveness proposal now faces challenges before the Supreme Court, which appeared skeptical of it in oral arguments earlier this year. The high court’s decision on the legality of the plan is expected before the end of the month and potentially as soon as this week.
Though the NAACP applauded Biden’s decision when it was first announced, the organization has also stated that a minimum of $50,000 in student loan forgiveness would be needed to begin closing the racial wealth gap.
Black student loan borrowers are 50 percent more likely to have their loans fall into default. They also hold the most debt out of any other racial group, according to a report by PBS NewsHour. Among 2016 graduates, nearly 40 percent of Black students graduated college with $30,000 or more in debt, compared to only 29 percent of white students, 23 percent of Hispanic students and 18 percent of Asian students.
“The value of education is ingrained among Black Americans,” Johnson and Cole said in their letter. “Yet, the lack of generational wealth, predatory lending practices that increase the high cost of financing education, and other factors create barriers to economic success. Immediate and sustained education debt relief is essential to the economic fate of Black student loan borrowers.”
The NAACP letter tells Biden that, should the Supreme Court nix his student loan forgiveness plan, his administration must “pursue all legal pathways” to find a permanent solution.
That fix, they said, should find a way to make higher education more accessible and affordable, ending a cycle of borrowing that pushes Black borrowers into poverty.
Johnson and Cole issued a grave warning for the president, who is currently campaigning for reelection, if he fails to offer a new plan.
“Let us be clear — 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 but succeeded in widening the racial wealth gap and propelling their families, friends, neighbors, and colleagues into economic uncertainty,” they said.