Supreme Court ruling impacts loan forgiveness for 700K Ohioans

Tens of millions of borrowers — including 1.8 million in Ohio — will resume monthly student loan payments after the U.S. Supreme Court ruled Friday that President Biden's loan forgiveness plan is unconstitutional.

Why it matters: Borrowers who qualified for the relief plan would have been forgiven for loans up to $10,000 for individual borrowers who make less than $125,000 per year or $20,000 for Pell Grant recipients, Axios' April Rubin writes.

• More than 700,000 Ohioans were approved for Biden's forgiveness plan.

Between the lines: Student loan debt relief had been blocked by court orders and put on hold since November, months after the program was announced last August.

• Payments are set to resume in October.

Zoom in: More than 1.8 million Ohioans, or about 15% of the state population, have some type of student loan debt totaling $62.3 billion, according to the Education Data Initiative.

• The average borrower in Ohio has nearly $35,000 in student debt.

What's next: The Biden administration is looking to other avenues to give borrowers a break, though the effects will be noticeably smaller, Axios' Caitlin Owens reports.

• Biden announced a one-year on-ramp for loan repayments, during which borrowers who miss payments won't be reported to credit bureaus, placed in default, or referred to debt collection agencies.
• And a revamp of the Income-Driven Repayment program will reduce many borrowers' monthly payment obligations and will eventually result in some degree of loan forgiveness down the road.

The other side: Republicans have put forward their own alternatives, potentially laying the groundwork for what could become a contentious topic during the presidential campaign.

• A group of Senate Republicans introduced a package of bills, including measures that would add transparency to the student loan process, limit loan amounts for graduate degrees, and implement alternative repayment plan reforms. House Republicans have presented their own package.