Ohio think tank enters fight against student loan forgiveness plan again

An Ohio group is asking the U.S. Supreme Court to keep to previous decisions in which a Biden administration student loan forgiveness program was struck down.

In a July amicus or “friend of the court” brief, the conservative think-tank The Buckeye Institute criticized the newest student loan forgiveness plan as unconstitutional and crossing congressional lines. The group supports reversing an appellate court decision that allowed the Biden administration’s “Saving on Valuable Education” (SAVE) program to continue as a challenge to it moves through the courts.

“Despite the clear congressional limitations on when and how student loan borrowers may obtain forgiveness or cancellation of their direct loans, the Department (of Education) has fabricated a new student loan forgiveness program without Congress’ approval,” the institute wrote in its brief, joined by the National Taxpayers Union Foundation and the Kansas Justice Institute.

The Buckeye Institute argues that those who obtain a student loan “are contractually bound to repay their loans,” and know the impact a defaulted loan can have on a credit score, among other risks. Officials attempting to “forgive” the loans through the “Revised Pay-As-You-Earn (REPAYE) plan” also know those loans must be paid back, one way or another, the group said in its brief.

“While some may applaud the president’s and the (education) secretary’s generous giveaway of Treasury assets, the REPAYE plan does not legally relieve the borrowers of their duty to pay and does not excuse the government from its duty to collect the outstanding loans,” the institute and its companion groups wrote.

This is not the first time the Ohio group has jumped into the debate over student loan forgiveness. The institute filed its own lawsuit against a previous program for student loan forgiveness in 2022, and entered amicus briefs on the topic in appellate court cases and high court cases alike, such as Biden v. Nebraska.

In the Biden v. Nebraska case, the U.S. Supreme Court’s 6-3 majority ruled states in the lawsuit had the right to challenge the president’s previous attempt at student loan forgiveness, and that the case should go back to the lower court.

That plan invoked 2003’s Higher Education Relief Opportunities for Students Act (HEROES) as the source of authority to cancel the debts of 20 million student loan borrowers – amounting to $430 billion in forgiven balances – and lowering the debt amounts for another 23 million Americans. The plan allows the U.S. Secretary of Education to change or waive requirements on student financial assistance for individuals who are serving in active duty military, are on National Guard duty, are residing in a declared disaster area or suffering “direct economic hardship as a direct result of a war or other military operation or national emergency,” according to the language of the law.

The law also allows the education secretary to grant waivers that ensure “affected individuals who have received student financial assistance … are not placed in a worse position financially in relation to that financial assistance because of their status,” among other authorizations for waivers.

The nation’s highest court agreed with those who sued the Biden administration over the plan, saying the HEROES Act “does not authorize the loan cancellation plan.”

“We hold today that the Act allows the Secretary to ‘waive or modify’ existing statutory or regulatory provisions applicable to financial assistance programs under the Education Act, not to rewrite that statute from the ground up,” wrote Chief Justice John Roberts in the opinion of the majority.