Savannah Britt owes about $27,000 in loans she took out to attend Rutgers University, a debt she hoped would be reduced by President Joe Biden. student loan forgiveness efforts.

Its payments are currently suspended while the courts resolve challenges to the loan forgiveness program. But as the weeks pass during Biden’s term, she may soon face a monthly payment of up to $250.

“With this new administrationthe dream is gone. It’s filmed,” said Britt, 30, who runs her own communications agency. “I was hopeful before Tuesday. I was waiting for the process to be completed. Even my mother took out a loan to support me. She owes about $18,000, and she was in the process of getting her forgiveness, but it’s stalled.

President-elect Donald Trump and fellow Republicans have criticized Biden’s loan forgiveness efforts, and lawsuits from GOP-led states have delayed plans for widespread debt forgiveness. Trump has not said what he would do on loan forgiveness, leaving millions of borrowers facing uncertainty about their personal finances.

THE economy was an important issue in the election, helping propel Trump to victory. But for borrowers, concerns about their finances extend beyond inflation and include their student debt, said Persis Yu, legal counsel for the Student Borrower Protection Center.

“A lot of what makes life unaffordable for them is this spending burden that they can’t seem to shake off,” Yu said.

Student loan forgiveness was not a focus of Trump or the vice president’s campaign Kamala Harriswho avoided the topic at his political events. The issue was raised only once during the September presidential debate, when Trump criticized Harris and Biden for failing to fulfill their promise of a widespread pardon. Trump called it a “total disaster” that “taunted young people.”

Biden promised the student loan forgiveness program during his run for president. From its inception, Biden’s loan forgiveness faced relentless pushback from opponents who said it gave an advantage to elites and came at the expense of those who repaid their loans or did not attend the university.

Biden’s first plan to cancel up to $20,000 for millions of people was blocked by the Supreme Court last year. A second plan, narrower was halted by a federal judge after Republican-led states sued. A separate policy aimed at reducing loan payments for struggling borrowers was suspended by a judge, also after Republican-controlled states challenged it.

Overall, Biden’s efforts have been relatively unpopular, even among those who benefited from student loans. Three in 10 American adults said they approved of how Biden had handled student debt, according to a report. survey this spring from the Harris School of Public Policy at the University of Chicago and Associated Press-NORC Public Affairs Research Center. Four out of ten people disapproved. The others were neutral or didn’t know enough to express themselves.

Project 2025, the plan for a right turn in the American government that aligns with some of Trump’s prioritiescalls for removing the federal government from the student loan business and eliminating repayment plans prior to the Biden administration.

Even without directly addressing student loans, Trump has made promises that would affect them. He has pledged to eliminate the U.S. Department of Education, which manages the $1.6 trillion federal student loan portfolio. It’s unclear which entity would assume that responsibility if the department were abolished, which would require congressional approval.

Yu noted that the Biden administration had success in canceling student loans for about 5 million borrowerseven though the signature pardon effort was blocked. The administration did this by leveraging existing loan forgiveness programs. For example, an existing student loan forgiveness program for public sector workers provided relief to more than 1 million Americans, compared to just 7,000 who were approved before it was updated by the Biden administration two years ago.

“A lot of the rollbacks we’ve seen over the last two years are because the Biden administration is committed to making sure the programs that are actually written into law work for people,” he said. Yu said.

The challenge of paying back the $23,000 she borrowed to study education policy at Columbia University weighs on Zaakirah Rahman, 23, but she said she sees no alternative to higher education.

“It feels like the threshold is getting higher and higher and suddenly getting a bachelor’s degree is no longer enough,” she said. “It’s expensive. It’s super expensive. But it seems you don’t really have a choice.

Sabrina Calazans, 27, owes about $30,000 in federal student loans from her college days at Arcadia University in Pennsylvania. Her payments have also been suspended, but she may soon have to pay more than $300 a month.

“As a first-generation American, I live at home with my family, I contribute to our household finances, and this payment means a lot to me and so many others like me,” said Calazans, a native of Brazil.

In her role as executive director of the Student Debt Crisis Center, Calazans said she has told people to stay abreast of developments by using the loan simulator on the site. Federal Student Aid Website and read updated information about forgiveness terms and repayment programs.

“There’s a lot of confusion about student loans,” Calazans said, and not just among young people. “We’re seeing a lot of parents going into more debt so their kids can go to school. We’re seeing older people going back to school and having to take out loans as well.

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Collin Binkley, education editor for the Associated Press, in Washington, DC. contributed to this report.

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