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The head of the teachers union, Randi Weingarten, had a meltdown in front of the Supreme Court, shouting that it is “not fair” for the courts to block student debt relief.
Weingarten, 65, delivered an impassioned speech Tuesday in support of Joe Biden’s $10,000 debt relief program, which has been bogged down in state courts fighting it. The plan is estimated to cost taxpayers $400 billion over the next three years.
“Frankly, and this is what really bothers me,” Weingarten said. ‘During the pandemic, we understood that small businesses were suffering, and we helped them, and it didn’t go to the Supreme Court to challenge it. Big business was suffering, and we helped them, and it didn’t go to the Supreme Court to challenge it.
‘Suddenly, when it comes to our students, they challenge it, corporations challenge it, student loan lenders challenge it. That’s not right, that’s not fair, and that’s what we’re also fighting for when we say cancel student debt. It’s about the people, and it’s about the future of the people, and it’s about all their futures.’
After a series of legal challenges, including from six red states, the nine justices will hear arguments in favor of Biden’s plan to eliminate up to $20,000 in individual federal student loan debt, which could cost taxpayers up to $400 billion.
Randi Weingarten, 65, said it “pisses me off” that the pandemic stimulus provided to small businesses hasn’t been challenged, but student debt has. “Frankly, and this is what really bothers me,” Weingarten said.
‘During the pandemic, we understood that small businesses were suffering, and we helped them, and it didn’t go to the Supreme Court to challenge it. Big business was suffering, and we helped them, and it didn’t go to the Supreme Court to challenge it. Suddenly, when it comes to our students, they defy it’
The plan, which Biden announced in August, would forgive $10,000 in student loans for those making less than $125,000 and married couples making less than $250,000 combined. That forgiveness would go up to $20,000 if the borrower received a Pell Grant, which helps students from low-income families.
“Today, my administration argues our case for student debt relief in the Supreme Court,” President Biden tweeted. ‘This relief is critical for more than 40 million Americans as they recover from the economic crisis caused by the pandemic. We are sure that it is legal.
A Supreme Court ruling puts more at stake than student loans. If the nation’s highest court rules that Biden’s executive action is unconstitutional, it could give more power to legal challenges by states against federal policymaking.
Republicans immediately denounced Biden’s order as unfair to those who didn’t go to college and would need to help pay taxes for the forgiveness plan, or to those who already paid off their loans or never took out loans.
On the other hand, some activists said the plan didn’t go far enough, saying all student loan debt should be wiped out.
“This is about the people,” Weingarten said Tuesday. ‘And this is about the future of the people. And this is about all your futures.
The plan, which Biden announced in August, would forgive $10,000 in student loans for those making less than $125,000 and married couples making less than $250,000 combined. That forgiveness would go up to $20,000 if the borrower received a Pell grant, which helps students from low-income families.
After a series of legal challenges, including from six red states, the nine justices will hear arguments in favor of Biden’s plan to eliminate up to $20,000 in individual federal student loan debt, which could cost taxpayers up to $400 billion.
Six Republican-led states challenged President Biden’s proposal, claiming the administrative process needed to go through a proper comment and response period and also claiming it was an overreach.
The 6-3 conservative majority will have the final say on the matter after it has worked its way through the court system.
Biden’s legal basis for trying to cancel a portion of student debt is a 2003 law known as the Higher Education Opportunity Relief for Students Act, better known as the HEROES Act.
Implemented after the terrorist attack on September 11, 2001, the law was intended to prevent service members from becoming financially worse off while deployed in Afghanistan and Iraq.
Now extended, the law allows the Secretary of Education, Miguel Cardona, to grant relief in times of national emergency, in this case, COVID-19.
The White House argues that ending the national emergency does not change its legal position to pay off student loan debt because COVID-19 affected millions of borrowers who may have fallen behind on their loans during the pandemic.
Activists are calling for all student debt to be cancelled. “This is about the people,” Weingarten said Tuesday. ‘And this is about the future of the people. And this is about all your futures’
Vermont Senator Bernie Sanders (pictured) also spoke at the event.
“The economic impact of the pandemic is still real,” said Education Secretary Miguel Cardona, while insisting that the pandemic was over. “We are trying to help people recover.”
According to their legal brief, the states argue that the proposal seeks “impressive and transformative power” by relying on “a tenuous and pretextual connection to a national emergency.”
Student loan borrowers have been caught up in a year of uncertainty.
Biden’s pardon announcement in August also came with him declaring the latest student loan deferment extension due to the COVID-19 pandemic, saying people would have to resume regular payments on January 1, 2023.
The president, however, decided to extend the moratorium until the summer, when the Supreme Court’s term normally ends, and an opinion on the case must be issued.
Since the program launched, 26 million borrowers have applied for relief despite their state of limbo.
The White House continues to insist that its approach is legally sound.