WASHINGTON, CMC – New York City’s Caribbean-American Public Advocate, Jumaane Williams, has condemned the United States Supreme Court’s rejection of the Joe Biden administration’s student debt forgiveness program.
In the final decision of its term, the conservative majority of the US Supreme Court on Friday struck down President Biden’s bid for student debt relief for millions of Americans, saying that the president does not have the authority to implement his roughly US$400 billion program.
The 6-3 ruling, with the three liberal justices dissenting, came a day after the same majority rejected the long-standing policy on affirmative action on admissions to colleges and universities.
“Yesterday, the court reshaped the college admissions process in a way that will decrease diversity and limit opportunities for people who have struggled against systemic adversity. Today, they’ve ensured that even those who can get into school will continue to struggle against crushing student loan debt, effectively preventing advancement and opportunity that a degree should provide,” Williams, the son of Grenadian immigrants, told the Caribbean Media Corporation (CMC).
“In both cases, the aim seems clear – maintaining a tiered system where those with resources, opportunities, and power retain it, while those without are consigned to second-class status in perpetuity.
“Once again, while many will be hurt, Black and Brown Americans will be hit the hardest. The court has said, in essence, that the only people who deserve relief are richer, wealthier, and whiter Americans and corporations.”
Williams said that the federal government should continue to explore avenues to relieve people of the student debt that follows them for decades.
“And on all levels of government, we must work to make college more affordable and accessible to all, regardless of economic hardship and pain that this court intends to preserve.”
In a White House statement, US Vice President Harris, whose father, Dr. Donald Harris, is a retired Jamaican-born economist, said, “All Americans deserve the opportunity to pursue a college education without the burden of crushing student loan debt.
“That is why our administration took action to provide a lifeline to tens of millions of borrowers. Nearly 90 percent of the people who would have benefitted make less than US$75,000 annually. At every turn, Republican officials at the state level and in Congress tried to block our plan. Today, the Supreme Court sided with them,” Harris said.
She said reducing student loan debt and securing relief for families have been priorities throughout her career and pillars of the Biden-Harris administration.
“President Biden and I are committed to delivering the relief student debt borrowers need to recover from the pandemic and move forward with their lives,” Harris said.
Biden said his administration had the authority to forgive student loan debt under the Higher Education Relief Opportunities for Students Act of 2003, permitting the US Secretary of Education to waive or modify loan provisions amid a national emergency, such as the COVID-19 pandemic.
But, in writing for the majority, US Supreme Court Justice John Roberts said the Education Secretary rested on an “exhaustive rewriting” of the law.
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