Minnesota Alliance With Youth Criticizes Supreme Court Decision on Student Loan Forgiveness Plan

Minneapolis, MN, June 30, 2023- Today’s US Supreme Court ruling against the Biden Administration’s student loan forgiveness plan hurts students, families, and communities, and saddles hundreds of thousands of Minnesotans with crippling financial burdens and uncertain futures. The vast majority of student loan borrowers are low- and middle-class Americans, two-thirds of whom are women. Skyrocketing student debt has created inequitable barriers and burdens for these students, exasperating our state’s existing educational disparities.

“Our debt-financed system, coupled with the extreme costs of higher education tuition, has left a generation of students on the brink of financial devastation simply because they sought to advance their lives and the lives of their families through access to higher education,” said Erich Mische, Executive Director of the Minnesota Alliance With Youth. “The decision does nothing to enhance economic equity and simply moves more Americans further and further away from the attainment of the American Dream.”

Minnesota Alliance With Youth calls for investment in systems and policies that advance access to higher education for all students. Student loan forgiveness is not just an education issue, it is a human rights issue.

The Alliance’s programs aim to ensure that ALL young people have equitable educational opportunities that foster their individual assets, honor their voices, and prepare them to reach their goals. Our AmeriCorps Promise Fellows and AmeriCorps VISTA programs provide individuals with the opportunity to spend a year in service to our state’s middle and high schoolers, providing the support needed for students to graduate. Upon successful completion of their service, these AmeriCorps members receive an Education Award that can be applied to their own higher education expenses.

“In light of the Supreme Court’s decision, the Education Award that is provided for successful completion of our AmeriCorps Promise Fellows and AmeriCorps VISTA program becomes even more vital to hundreds of Minnesotans,” said Mische. “However, the award which ranges from approximately $4,000 to $7,000 isn’t a solution to the more fundamental issue of the devastating and stifling burden that student debt has on the future and quality of life of thousands of Minnesotans and millions of Americans.”