The NAACP, joined by other advocates, said it would march to the White House Friday after the Supreme Court blocked a plan that would’ve forgiven at least some student-loan debt for up to 43 million U.S. borrowers while totally canceling the full remaining balances for about 20 million, by one estimate.
“The Supreme Court’s decision to strike down the President’s student debt program is a clear disregard for what millions of Americans need — especially Black Americans,” NAACP President and CEO Derrick Johnson said in a statement Friday. “Despite today’s upsetting ruling, we demand that the Biden Administration delivers on the promise of student loan debt relief. Education has long been regarded as a path toward generational wealth, economic liberation, and securing the American dream. Let’s be clear — student debt is killing that dream.”
Read more: The Supreme Court just blocked student-loan cancellation. Here’s what happens next for your loans.
See also: ‘This fight is not over’: Advocates push Biden to use other tools to cancel student debt
The Supreme Court ruled in a 6-3 decision that the Biden administration’s bid to wipe out more than $400 billion in federal student-loan debt — up to $20,000 per borrower, in cases where individuals earned less than $125,000 and used a Pell grant for college — was an overstep of executive authority.
In initially announcing the student-debt-forgiveness plan last August, the White House hailed the move as an advancement toward racial equity because it targeted the greatest amount of relief to borrowers who took out Pell grants, which Black borrowers are twice as likely to have received compared to white borrowers, the administration said in a fact sheet at the time.
Because of policies that have historically blocked Black Americans from building wealth, Black borrowers on average also tend to carry higher student-debt loads than their white counterparts, and struggle more to pay it off.
From the archives (November 2021): Black women are being crushed by the student-debt crisis — and demanding action
The NAACP began its rally at the Supreme Court Friday.
“It is devastating that the cries of Black Americans continue to fall on deaf ears. Students, teachers, parents and politicians have repeatedly demanded relief from the crushing weight of student debt — and this government refuses to listen,” Wisdom Cole, the NAACP’s national director of youth and college, said in a statement.
“We cannot thrive as a nation if we do not close the racial wealth gap. Taking the first step to relieve us from student debt is taking a first step towards true equity in a system that was built against us,” Cole added. “We refuse to accept defeat.”
From the archives (July 2019): All the ways student debt exacerbates racial inequality: ‘It’s like landing in quick sand’
Read the full article here