Biden to talk about student debt relief in Wisconsin after primary vote gives warning signs

WASHINGTON (AP) — President Joe Biden is traveling to Wisconsin to announce details of a new plan to relieve student debt for millions, a trip that comes a week after primary votes in the battleground of the Midwest which highlighted the weaknesses of the Democratic president and Donald Trump. his Republican challenger.

Biden made the announcement Monday in Madison, the state’s liberal capital and home to the University of Wisconsin’s flagship campus.

The new federal rule paving the way for student debt relief isn’t expected to be released when the president speaks, but Biden will highlight a plan the Department of Education began working on after the U.S. Supreme Court last year foiled his first attempt at a pardon. hundreds of billions of dollars in student debt.

Immediately after the court ruled that Biden needed Congress to approve his original plan, the president said the decision was a “mistake” and “wrong” and announced that Education Secretary Miguel Cardona would undertake a new process using its authority under the Higher Education Act to waive. or compromise student debt in specific cases.

A new announcement on student loan relief, an important issue for young voters, could help energize parts of Biden’s political coalition that have been disappointed by his job performance. These are people the president will need to defeat Trump in November.

In Wisconsin’s April 2 primary election, nearly 119,000 Republicans voted for a Republican candidate other than Trump, the party’s presumptive nominee. And more than 48,000 Democratic voters chose “uneducated” over Biden, more than double Biden’s narrow margin of victory in Wisconsin in 2020.

Nearly 15 percent of Democrats in Dane County, home to the University of Wisconsin and Madison, voted “uneducated.” That’s nearly double the statewide total of 8%.

Democratic U.S. Representative. Marc Pocanwho represents Madison in Congress, said he was struck that concerns about Israel’s war against Hamas in Gaza were top of mind among voters at five town halls over the past two weeks in the areas the most rural areas of his district.

“I was surprised to see the intensity on the Gaza issue coming not from a student voice in Madison, but from older voters in more rural areas of the district,” Pocan said.

Pocan said the number of “uneducated” votes shows Wisconsin’s concern and Biden needs to address it. He said he plans to speak directly with Biden about it on Monday.

“I just want to make sure he knows that if we’re going to have a problem, it could be Wisconsin’s problem,” Pocan said.

Biden’s new plan would expand federal student loan relief to new categories of borrowers still targeted through the Higher Education Act, which administration officials say gives it a more legal basis. strong than the radical proposal that was rejected by a 6-3 majority in court last year. .

The plan is expected to be smaller and more focused than his original plan, which would have canceled up to $20,000 in loans for more than 40 million borrowers.

The department defined five categories of borrowers who would be eligible to have all or part of their federal loans forgiven. The plan aims to help those who need it most, including those who would otherwise never be able to repay their loans.

Among those targeted are those whose unpaid interest has exceeded the initial loan amount. The proposal would bring their balance back to the original amount by erasing up to $10,000 or $20,000 in interest, depending on their income.

Borrowers who have been paying off their student loans for decades would have all their remaining debt erased under this plan. Loans used for a borrower’s undergraduate education would be forgiven if they have been repaid for at least 20 years. For other types of federal loans, it’s 25 years.

The plan would automatically forgive loans for those in for-profit college programs deemed “low value.” Borrowers would be eligible for forgiveness if, while they were attending college, the average federal student loan payment among graduates was too high relative to their average salary.

Those who are eligible for other types of cancellation but have not applied will automatically receive relief. This would apply to public service loan forgiveness and borrower defense to repayment, programs that have been around for years but require notoriously difficult paperwork.

Under pressure from advocates, the department also added a category for people facing “difficulties.” It would offer forgiveness to borrowers considered highly likely to default within two years. Additional borrowers would be eligible for relief under a broad definition of financial hardship.

A series of hearings to develop the rule concluded in February and the draft is currently under review. Before it can be finalized, the Department of Education will need to release a formal proposal and open it to a public comment period.

The latest forgiveness attempt adds to other targeted initiatives, including those aimed at government workers and low-income borrowers. Through these efforts, the Biden administration claims to have canceled $144 billion in student loans for nearly 4 million Americans.

Biden was stopping in Chicago for a campaign event before returning to the White House Monday evening.

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Associated Press writer Scott Bauer in Madison, Wisconsin, contributed to this report.