KENT, Ohio — President Joe Biden announced the details of his student loan forgiveness plan Wednesday and students at Kent State University had some strong reactions.
"Coming from not having a lot of money and coming to college and worrying about having to pay those back, it's a very stressful situation. I told my Mom, I'm going to continue to go to school as long as I can," a senior Pell Grant recipient said.
School starts Thursday and any student in their sophomore year or older will see benefits if they have taken out student loans and are making $125,000 a year or less. The plan provides $10,000 if they're eligible and $20,000 if they're eligible and are a Pell grant recipient.
For some majors like medicine, there's a lot of years to accumulate debt.
"Whenever you get out of school, they're like 'well, you're a doctor now, you're supposed to be making $200, $300, upwards of $700,000 a year,' but residents sometimes aren't even breaking past $10 an hour," a sophomore pre-med student said.
Josh Rovenger works with student loans as an attorney with The Legal Aid Society of Cleveland and says while many people with loans are celebrating, there are still details that need to be worked out, including how different types of loans will be handled.
"There are a number of really important deadlines to be aware of moving forward, so the first is most borrowers are going to have to take some step to effectuate this cancellation," Rovenger said.
But for him, this is just a partial solution to a problem he says hasn't been systemically fixed.
"Cancellation may start to rectify some of the failures in the past. Looking forward, there needs to be broader conversations about the cost of admission at school," Rovenger added.
For some students, though, the relief is already being felt. Through it all, they believe they'd make the same choice to go to college.
I'm a first generation and this was huge. Obviously money is always going to be a problem, but take that risk," a Kent State senior said.
Previous Reporting:
- Biden announces student loan relief for borrowers making less than $125,000
- Yes, some federal student loan borrowers will need to apply for debt forgiveness
- Biden to cut $20,000 in student debt from Pell Grant recipients. Here's who qualifies.
- Fast Facts about student loan forgiveness
- Who qualifies (and who doesn't) for student loan forgiveness
- How is Biden able to forgive student loans?