The National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP), the American Federation of Teachers, the American Federation of Labor and Congress of Industrial Organizations (AFL-CIO), and other organizations sent a letter last week to Education Secretary Miguel Cardona asking for a "robust rule" aimed at helping low-income borrowers, people of color, people with disabilities, and recent graduates.
Elaine Parker of the Job Creators Network Foundation, an organization that has already taken the Biden administration to court over its "student loan relief," has also sent a message.
"The direct message we sent the White House and the administration was the litigation we brought forward and what the Supreme Court said is final: You don't have the right to do this," she relays. "We have certainly made suggestions on policy changes and legislation that would help, and fortunately, congressional representatives in the Senate agreed with some of our suggestions."
Parker says universities are sitting on $700 billion collectively in untaxed endowments, so her organization believes colleges should have some financial skin in the game by underwriting a portion of these loans. They should be able to show their success measurements of the degree programs that they sell.
"When they are selling a degree program to you, they should be able to say, 'If you buy this degree program from us and take a loan of $50,000, you can expect a salary out there, because our other alumni have these jobs of X amount, and you'll be able to pay back this money,'" Parker explains. "Unless they can show these success requirements, I do not think the federal government should be underwriting these loans and just signing off with a spigot of money going out the door."
But pointing to this latest amount of approved money, Parker says the president continues to defy the Supreme Court and Congress for political gain.
"His lawless actions make a mockery of the separation of powers and set a dangerous precedent that consolidates more power in the executive branch," she said in a statement in response to the president's announcement. "College students themselves are the biggest losers of Biden's college debt forgiveness because colleges are given a blank check to continue overcharging and saddling them with debt. Biden must be held accountable for his overreach, either in the courts or at the ballot box this fall."
The administration, she asserts, is "clearly focused on forgiving loans of current voters. They don't care about future borrowers and future students."
"The reality is it is not sustainable, and the administration, the Congress has got to do something to make college more affordable and hold these colleges accountable," Parker concludes.
