Student Loans

Some GOP States Oppose Biden's Student Loan Forgiveness Yet Offer Their Own

NBC News reviewed Republican-led states trying to stop the president's plan

WASHINGTON, DC – FEBRUARY 28: People rally in support of the Biden administration’s student debt relief plan in front of the the U.S. Supreme Court on February 28, 2023 in Washington, DC. This morning, the U.S. Supreme Court will hear oral arguments in two cases challenging President Joe Bidens student loan debt forgiveness program, which remains on hold after a lower court blocked the plan in November. The two cases Biden v. Nebraska and Department of Education v. Brown, which could decide the fate of the program that aims to forgive an estimated $400 billion in student debt for 26 million borrowers. (Photo by Drew Angerer/Getty Images)

Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis has blasted President Joe Biden’s student loan forgiveness plan as "very unfair." Iowa Gov. Kim Reynolds has decried the policy as “unconscionable,” “wrong” and “out of touch.” "Un-American" and "socialism" are the words Arkansas Gov. Sarah Huckabee Sanders has used. 

Yet, all three Republican governors offer at least one state program for student loan forgiveness or repayment.

They’re far from the only ones. 

NBC News reviewed student loan forgiveness policies in states in which a Republican governor has called for an end to Biden's plan or a Republican attorney general has sued to stop it. The vast majority of those states actually offer their own taxpayer-funded student loan forgiveness programs.

Read more at NBCNews.com.

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