The color of student debt relief

Feb 28, 2023

With help from Rishika Dugyala, Brakkton Booker, Jesse Naranjo, Ella Creamer and Teresa Wiltz

People stand at night in front of the Supreme Court building with light signs that read

Demonstrators rally outside the U.S. Supreme Court on Monday, Feb. 27, 2023. | POLITICO illustration/Francis Chung/POLITICO

What’s good, mi gente? It’s the last day of February, but we’ll keep covering Black history all year. This week, a cartoonist loses business after making racist remarks and lawmakers show support for Rep. Judy Chu (D-Calif.) after one Republican questioned her loyalty to the United States because of her Chinese heritage. But first, we’ll take up the student debt case before SCOTUS today.

When MyKeisha Wells found out she qualified for President Joe Biden’s student loan forgiveness plan, she thought about the future. The 22-year-old University of Michigan graduate student, who borrowed more than $60,000 to realize her career goal of becoming a social worker, began to consider the life-altering impact it would have for a student from a low-income background like her.

“I want to be able to buy a house and be able to do all these things that create generational wealth for my future children,” she told The Recast. “It’s going to be really hard to do that with student debt following me for a few years. … It could take like 10 to 25 years to pay it off.”

Wells was one of about 100 advocates who gathered Monday evening outside the Supreme Court, braving the rainy winter chill to wait in line overnight in the hopes of securing a seat to hear the oral arguments in a pair of cases that could end the federal student loan program.

On Tuesday, after hearing arguments for both cases, the conservative majority at the Supreme Court appeared likely to overturn the plan, pressure-testing the administration’s argument that the relief is just another program meant to palliate the effects of the pandemic and statutorily authorized.

A quote from University of Michigan graduate student MyKeisha Wells reads: “I want to be able to buy a house and be able to do all these things that create generational wealth for my future children. It’s going to be really hard to do that with student debt following me for a few years.

More than 25 million borrowers had already applied to the student debt relief plan, one of Biden’s signature campaign promises, when a federal court paused the initiative in November in response to a lawsuit led by six Republican state attorneys general that contended the administration had exceeded its pandemic-era authority in granting the relief.

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“The secretary is attempting to bypass Congress on one of today’s most debated policy questions: student loan forgiveness,” Nebraska’s solicitor general, James Campbell, told the justices in opening remarks. “After many failed legislative efforts, the secretary seeks to write off nearly a half-trillion dollars in loans for over 40 million borrowers.”

The states argue that the federal government’s plan would cost them money by impeding state agencies that hold student debt from collecting it and reducing their tax revenue. The Congressional Budget Office estimates Biden’s plan would cost $400 billion.

Chief Justice John Roberts, a conservative, appeared to signal that the Department of Education needs a clearer grant of authority from Congress to take action given the program’s significant political and economic consequences.

The law that the administration is relying on says that the secretary of Education may “waive or modify any statutory or regulatory provision” related to federal student loans to ensure borrowers “are not placed in a worse position financially” because of a national emergency.

The court has struck down some of Biden’s previous pandemic-era policies, such as the workplace vaccination requirement and the extension of the eviction moratorium.

But the states also have to prove they have the legal right to sue (known as standing) to end the program, and Justice Amy Coney Barrett joined liberals in questioning whether the states have that right. Barrett also pointed out that during the Trump administration, Secretary of Education Betsy DeVos provided some debt relief by pausing collection of student loan payments at the start of the pandemic, zeroing in on the distinction between “pausing” and “canceling” debt.

Amy Coney Barrett speaks during a confirmation hearing.

Justice Amy Coney Barrett joined liberals in questioning whether the states have the legal to sue to end the program. | Susan Walsh, Pool/AP Photo

Before Biden’s program came under legal scrutiny, the Department of Education had already green-lighted the applications of some 16 million borrowers, but it estimated that over 40 million would qualify. A POLITICO analysis of all applications received by the Department of Education showed that most of them came from places where the per-capita income is under $35,000.

What’s more, neighborhoods where people of color make up a majority of the population accounted for more applications per person than did majority-white ZIP codes, our analysis found.

Advocates and Democratic officials have cast student loan forgiveness as one possible antidote to the country’s persistent racial wealth gap. According to a 2021 Brookings Institution study, the average Black college graduate owes approximately $25,000 more in student debt than the average white student four years after graduation.

It’s a message that echoed at the rally in front of the Supreme Court the night before the arguments, in between the jazz band and mariachi performances that created a party atmosphere. Rep. Robert Garcia (D-Calif.), a former college professor, said he and his husband were still paying off their loans many years after graduation.

Representative Robert Garcia speaks alongside activists during a rally outside the U.S. Supreme Court.

Rep. Robert Garcia (D-Calif.) speaks alongside activists during a rally outside the U.S. Supreme Court on Feb. 27, 2023, the night before justices are scheduled to hear oral arguments on President Biden's student debt relief plan. | Francis Chung/POLITICO

“We also know that student loans have always disproportionately impacted students of color, low-income students and those that didn’t receive financial training on how to actually manage our student loans,” Garcia told the crowd as the wind gusted. “When I was in college [as a] first-generation college student, no one taught me anything about the university. I took out student loans. I knew nothing about how student loans actually functioned, how they worked.”

For the groups involved in the rally, such as Rise and We The 45 Million, this is the culmination of a yearslong movement pushing the Democratic Party, and later the Biden administration, to unite behind student debt cancellation as a rallying issue. Research commissioned by Rise found that student debt relief drove Georgia voters to the polls, especially among key constituencies that helped elect Democratic Sen. Raphael Warnock.

But despite the partisan overlay fueling the legal challenges, its beneficiaries appear to be bipartisan. Only slightly more of the relief applications come from congressional districts represented by Democrats than Republicans, according to POLITICO’s analysis.

On Tuesday, Justice Sonia Sotomayor, an appointee of President Barack Obama, put the stakes in sharp relief: “There’s 50 million students who will benefit from this today who will struggle. … They don’t have friends or families or others who can help them make these payments. The evidence is clear that many of them will have to default.”

When the court’s decision comes down this summer, we’ll be watching.

All the best,
The Recast Team

CHI-TOWN SHOWDOWN

Chicago mayor Lori Lightfoot waves a hand to supporters at an indoor rally.

Chicago Mayor Lori Lightfoot waves to supporters as she walks in for a "Women for Lori" rally in Chicago, Saturday, Feb. 25, 2023. | Nam Y. Huh/AP Photo

Chicagoans head to the polls Tuesday to cast ballots in a mayoral election where rising crime and the future of policing are playing a prominent role, POLITICO’s Brakkton Booker reports.

The election is also a referendum on incumbent Mayor Lori Lightfoot’s first term in office.

Lightfoot, whose popularity has taken a hit after she failed to deliver on campaign promises to run a more transparent administration and to reduce crime, is seeking a second term among a crowded field that includes eight other challengers. No one candidate is expected to come close to securing an outright victory, forcing an all-but-expected April 4 runoff between the top two vote-getters.

In a bit of a surprise, both Lightfoot, the city’s first Black woman and first openly gay mayor, and Rep. Jesús “Chuy” García (D-Ill.), the person once thought to be her chief rival, may not even make the runoff. This despite each having advanced to the runoff stage in previous mayoral contests, Lightfoot in 2019 and García in 2015.

García, who is chasing history, vying to become Chicago’s first Latino mayor, mounted an insurgent campaign eight years ago, forcing then-Mayor Rahm Emanuel to a runoff, which García eventually lost.

Jesus

Rep. Jesus "Chuy" Garcia participates in a forum with other Chicago mayoral candidates hosted by the Chicago Women Take Action Alliance Jan. 14, 2023, at the Chicago Temple in Chicago. | Erin Hooley/AP Photo

In this year’s contest, García has had issues duplicating that success, writes my POLITICO colleague Shia Kapos, who adds: “The congressman … started campaigning late, waiting until he won reelection to Congress before launching his second bid for mayor.”

García was recognized on our inaugural Recast Power List last year (along with Chicago Council member Gilbert Villegas) for his work building Latino representation throughout all levels of Illinois government. Now, during his campaign, he’s sought to shore up Chicago’s Hispanic vote. He’s received endorsements from the progressive group Latino Victory, and campaigned with actor Luis Guzmán and labor leader and activist icon Dolores Huerta.

He needs a strong showing among Latino voters to punch his way into the runoff. (The city’s Latino population is on the rise, while its Black population has been on the decline for decades.) Both García and Lightfoot are flanked by mayoral candidates rising in polls.

To their political left is Cook County Commissioner Brandon Johnson, who at one point during the campaign flirted with the idea of reducing police funding but appears to have backed off that stance. He’s got the backing of the city’s teacher’s union. And to their political right is Paul Vallas, who’s carved out conservative stances on education and policing — and who’s been endorsed by the Fraternal Order of Police.

Polls close at 7 p.m. local time.

ICYMI @ POLITICO

Dueling GOP Cattle Calls — The Conservative Political Action Conference, known as CPAC, will be headlined by former President Donald Trump, just outside Washington, D.C., this week. In Florida, Gov. Ron DeSantis is set to headline a private retreat thrown by the Club for Growth. POLITICO’s Natalie Allison and Alex Isenstadt break down what this means for a splintered GOP.

WATCH: DeSantis signs law stripping away Disney’s self-governing status

France’s “New Era” in Africa — French President Emmanuel Macron announced that the former colonial power will reduce its military presence in Africa, POLITICO Europe’s Nicolas Camut writes.

White House Moves — The White House announced it’s swapping one ex-mayor for another in the Office of Public Engagement. The post, which was previously held by former Atlanta Mayor Keisha Lance Bottoms, will now be helmed by longtime mayor of Columbia, S.C., Stephen Benjamin. POLITICO’s Mia McCarthy has more.

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