• Many borrowers are dismayed after SCOTUS struck down President Biden’s student-debt-relief plan.
• Scarlet Anderson, a 28-year-old college graduate, said that she had “no hope” after the ruling.
• Anderson said she consistently made her loan payments, but it didn’t make a dent in her balance.

After the Supreme Court struck down President Joe Biden’s student-loan forgiveness plan Friday, millions of borrowers who were anticipating relief from the federal government found themselves deeply dismayed.

While some borrowers were in the early stages of their repayment plans prior to the 2020 COVID-related suspension of most student-loan payments, others had been making payments for years — with many in the latter group stuck in a loop of paying down interest without seeing a substantial decrease in their principal amounts.

For many, Biden’s original plan, in which his Department of Education would forgive $10,000 in federal student-loan debt for borrowers earning under $125,000 per year — with up to $20,000 in relief for those who received Pell Grants and fell under the same income threshold — was a godsend.

Many millennials, especially, saw Biden’s plan as a way to help them purchase their first home, expand their family, or regain their financial footing, with a smaller or completely paid-off loan balance aiding them.

But in a 6-3 decision, the Supreme Court, driven by its conservative supermajority, ruled that Biden’s debt-relief plan was unconstitutional and required explicit approval by the US Congress.

Scarlet Anderson, a 28-year-old graphic designer who graduated from Arizona State University with $33,000 in student-loan debt, told The Washington Post that though she consistently made payments toward her loans, it was still difficult to make a dent in the balance.

“A lot of people make it seem like you have a choice in whether to go college or not, but I don’t feel that is true. We now live in a country where most jobs require a college degree,” she told the publication.

Anderson said that she previously filled out the Education Department’s form to receive student-debt relief after seeing a friend obtain forgiveness under a different program.

But for Anderson, things feel differently after the ruling.

“Now that the Supreme Court has rejected the student-loan forgiveness, I have no hope,” she told The Post.

But hours after the court’s decision, Biden initiated a process for using the Higher Education Act of 1965 to cancel student-loan debt.

“This new path is legally sound,” Biden said Friday. “It’s going to take longer, and in my view is the best path that remains in providing for as many borrowers possible. But I’m directing my team to move as quickly as possible on the law.”

Student-loan payments are set to resume in October, but Friday Biden announced a new income-driven repayment plan that would cut payments for borrowers. He’s also including a 12-month “on-ramp” for payments from October 1 of this year to September 30 of next year, which the White House said would ensure that “financially vulnerable borrowers who miss monthly payments during this period are not considered delinquent, reported to credit bureaus, placed in default, or referred to debt-collection agencies.”