(NewsNation) — The United States Supreme Court on Friday struck down the president’s plan for student debt relief — at a time when federal student loan debt in the U.S. totals more than $1.6 trillion.
The Supreme Court released its opinion Friday morning, shooting down President Joe Biden’s student debt relief plan in a 6-3 vote.
Federal student loans account for nearly 93% of all student loan debt, according to the Education Data Initiative. The balance impacts more than 43.6 million borrowers.
“My Administration’s student debt relief plan would have been the lifeline tens of millions of hardworking Americans needed as they try to recover from a once-in-a-century pandemic,” Biden said in an official statement.
The plan forgave as much as $10,000 in federal student debt for borrowers and doubled the debt relief to $20,000 for borrowers who also received Pell Grants and make less than $125,000 per year. About half of the average debt held by Black and Hispanic borrowers would have been wiped out, according to the White House.
Currently, the average student attending a public university for a bachelor’s degree borrows about $25,969.
All student loan debt combined nationally amounts to about $1.8 trillion, but the debt accumulation rate is slowing, according to the Education Data Initiative.
Student loan debt has decreased from 1.81% to 1.53% since the first quarter of 2023, according to the website.
Outstanding balances tend to increase by age group, with people 62 years and older owing an average of $49,375, Forbes reported.
The pandemic-era pause on student loan repayments is scheduled to end later this fall, with interest kicking in on Sept. 1 and repayments starting in October, according to the Department of Education.