Advocates from SoCal are joined by national players to urge student debt relief as Supreme Court begins oral arguments.
More than a hundred student borrowers, activists and allies from around the nation are camping overnight outside of the Supreme Court in anticipation of hearings on Tuesday, Feb. 28 focused on legal challenges to President Biden’s student debt relief program.
At an estimated cost of $400 billion, the program’s application period opened in October, but a federal judge in Texas halted the program in November, deeming it “unlawful.” As a result, more than 26 million borrowers remain in limbo, including 16 million who have been officially approved for relief.
In November 2022, a coalition of attorneys, advocates, labor unions and experts filed a series of amicus curiae (friend of the court) briefs with the U.S. Supreme Court in support of the student debt relief program.
Jonathon Herrera never had a room of his own before he moved into his dorm at Santa Clara University. The first in his family to go to a university, he got a full scholarship. As a son of undocumented low-income immigrants in East Los Angeles he still had to work — and needed more than $10,000 in loans.
“A lot of people that come from similar backgrounds as myself have been pushed back from higher education historically,” said Herrera. “I think this is just adding on to us not being able to save that 10 to 20K that we use to pay back those loans and, you know, put it as a down payment in a house investment or in our own businesses.”
After earning a political science degree, Herrera wanted to move back to his family home but knew there wasn’t room. Debt forgiveness would help him buy a property where his family could live.
“That’s what my mom has always wanted. She wants her own space. She wants her own garden. And I want to give that to her,” Herrera said.
The Monday sit in was hosted by We The 45 Million, MoveOn.org and Rise, and included student borrowers sharing their stories about their debts, a jazz and drum band performance, and late night eats.
Melissa Byrne, founder of We The 45 Million, said the purpose of the sit in was twofold: To show support for the program and to secure a place in line for student loan borrowers to sit in on courtroom arguments — and prevent opposition lobbyists from filling the courtroom seats. The 50-100 seats in the courtroom are first come, first serve.
Ambalika Williams, national director of organizing at Rise, co-hosted the sit in and is one of the more than 40 million Americans with student loans impacted by this case.
