With\u00a0President Joe Biden\u2019s<\/strong>\u00a0student debt forgiveness program\u00a0now in the hands of the U.S. Supreme Court<\/a><\/strong>, the White House went on offense last week, blasting out state-by-state breakdowns of how many Americans stand to benefit from it.<\/p>\n In all, 26 million people in all 50 states applied \u2014 or were automatically eligible \u2014 for the onetime relief, the administration said last week. That included 1.15 million Pennsylvanians, 743,000 of whom saw their applications approved and sent to loan servicers, the data showed.<\/p>\n According to the White House, more than 40 million student loan borrowers nationwide would qualify for the one-time relief, with 90 percent of the benefits for\u00a0out-of-school borrowers going to those earning $75,000 a year or less.<\/p>\n \u201cMillions of those borrowers could be experiencing the\u00a0benefits of that relief today \u2013 were it not for lawsuits brought on by elected officials in some of\u00a0their own states,\u201d the White House said in a fact-sheet it released last week.<\/p>\n The\u00a0long-awaited plan<\/a><\/strong>, officially\u00a0announced<\/a><\/strong>\u00a0last year, forgives $20,000 in student debt for\u00a0Pell Grant<\/strong>\u00a0recipients and $10,000 for borrowers earning $125,000 or less annually, the\u00a0Capital-Star reported<\/a><\/strong>\u00a0at the time.<\/p>\n With 64 percent of Pennsylvania college graduates having student loan debt in 2019-20, the commonwealth ranks among the highest in the nation for most debt, according to the\u00a0Institute for College Access and Success<\/a><\/strong>, a national organization that advocates for accessible and affordable education, the\u00a0Capital-Star\u2019s Marley Parish<\/strong>\u00a0reported last year.<\/p>\n The average debt load of a Pennsylvania college graduate during the same timeframe was $39,375. In Pennsylvania, 22 percent of college graduates had private student loan debt, with an average total of $42,361,\u00a0Parish<\/strong>\u00a0reported.<\/p>\n Republican opponents immediately went to court to try to stop the debt-forgiveness program, and the\u00a0U.S. Supreme Court<\/strong>\u00a0has announced that it will hear oral arguments in two of the challenges at the end of February,\u00a0CNBC reported<\/a><\/strong>.<\/p>\n The high court is set to hear challenges brought by\u00a0six Republican-led states, who argue that \u201cforgiveness will disrupt state entities that profit from federal student loans, as well as a lawsuit backed by the\u00a0Job Creators Network Foundation<\/strong>, a conservative advocacy organization, featuring two borrowers in Texas who are partially or fully left out of the president\u2019s relief<\/em>,\u201d\u00a0CNBC<\/strong>\u00a0reported.<\/p>\n It\u2019s possible the nation\u2019s highest court, which has a conservative majority,\u00a0will strike down the White House\u2019s program<\/a><\/strong>, one legal expert told the financial news network.<\/p>\n That\u2019s because the justices swiftly agreed to hear the challenges, suggesting they\u2019re eager to strike it down,\u00a0Harvard University Law School professor Lawrence Tribe<\/strong>\u00a0told\u00a0CNBC<\/strong>.<\/p>\n \u201cIt\u2019s basically put the program in deep freeze until it proceeds to most likely dismantle it,\u201d\u00a0Tribe<\/strong>\u00a0told\u00a0CNBC<\/strong>.<\/p>\n In Pennsylvania,\u00a0Biden\u2019s<\/strong>\u00a0Democratic allies have defended the program, describing it as a lifeline for state residents struggling to pay off thousands of dollars in debt.<\/p>\n The program will allow borrowers \u201cthe freedom to invest in their future, buy a home, or take a risk and start a business,\u201d\u00a0U.S. Sen. Bob Casey, D-Pa.,<\/strong>\u00a0said last year.<\/p>\n Casey<\/strong>\u00a0added that lawmakers need to address \u201cskyrocketing\u201d\u00a0college costs<\/a><\/strong>, so future students can get an education \u201cwithout signing up for a lifetime of debt.\u201d<\/p>\n Before he left office, former\u00a0Gov. Tom Wolf<\/strong>\u00a0announced that\u00a0Pennsylvania borrowers who are eligible for the program\u00a0won\u2019t face any state taxes<\/a><\/strong>\u00a0on the forgiveness \u2014 a position that\u2019s\u00a0in line with the federal government and other states<\/a><\/strong>.<\/p>\n \u201cStudent loan debt holds us all back. Individuals, families, and the commonwealth as a whole.\u00a0President Biden\u2019s\u00a0<\/strong>Student Debt Relief Plan\u00a0is a weight lifted off of shoulders and we will not burden Pennsylvanians who benefit from this relief with taxes at the state level,\u201d\u00a0Wolf<\/strong>\u00a0said in a statement last October.<\/p>\n<\/p><\/div>\n\n With\u00a0President Joe Biden\u2019s\u00a0student debt forgiveness program\u00a0now in the hands of the U.S. Supreme Court, the White House went on offense last week, blasting out state-by-state breakdowns of how many Americans stand to benefit from it. In all, 26 million people in all 50 states applied \u2014 or were automatically eligible \u2014 for the onetime relief, …<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":48519,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[161],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.brandon.ddtest.info\/multisite-test\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/48518"}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.brandon.ddtest.info\/multisite-test\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.brandon.ddtest.info\/multisite-test\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.brandon.ddtest.info\/multisite-test\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.brandon.ddtest.info\/multisite-test\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=48518"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"http:\/\/www.brandon.ddtest.info\/multisite-test\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/48518\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.brandon.ddtest.info\/multisite-test\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/48519"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.brandon.ddtest.info\/multisite-test\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=48518"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.brandon.ddtest.info\/multisite-test\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=48518"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.brandon.ddtest.info\/multisite-test\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=48518"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}![\"\"](\"https:\/\/www.penncapital-star.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/03\/STIMULUS-CASH-1024x695.jpg\")
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