student loans

Last week, the U.S. Supreme Court struck down President Joe Biden's student loan forgiveness plan. Now, borrowers in Kansas City and around the country are figuring out what that means for them.

The Missouri Higher Education Loan Authority — MOHELA — is named 85 times in the U.S. Supreme Court’s opinion striking down the Biden administration's student loan forgiveness program. The ruling affects more than 777,000 Missourians with federal student loans who would have received $10,000-$20,000 of relief.

On Friday, the Supreme Court handed down a decision that dismayed millions of people who were hoping for debt relief through President’s Biden program. Many of those borrowers live in the Midwest states that brought the case to the high court.

The court unanimously dismissed on standing grounds a challenge to President Biden's groundbreaking plan to forgive some or all federal student loan debt for tens of millions of Americans.

On Tuesday, the justices will hear expedited arguments in a challenge to the Biden plan brought by six states — Missouri, Nebraska, Iowa, Arkansas, Kansas and South Carolina.

The Missouri General Assembly is already fielding legislation on college students and campus life.

“This is a big win for our office and for Americans across the country, and we will keep up the fight," said Missouri Attorney General Eric Schmitt, one of six Republican attorneys general who sued over the loan relief program.

The Eighth Circuit Court of Appeals issued the stay, ordering the Biden administration not to act on the program while it considers a motion from six Republican-led states — including Missouri and Kansas — to block loan cancellation.

A federal judge dismissed an effort by six Republican-led states, including Missouri and Kansas, to block the Biden administration's plan to reduce student loan debt for tens of millions of Americans.

Six states, including Missouri and Kansas, are arguing that the Biden administration's debt relief plan harms entities that service the loans and treasuries that would benefit from taxes on forgiven debt.

The Republican attorneys general of Missouri and Kansas joined one lawsuit against the Biden administration over its student debt relief plan. The legal cases all face the same challenge: finding a plaintiff who will be clearly harmed by debt cancellation.

The lawsuit filed by the Republican attorneys general of Nebraska, Iowa, Kansas, Missouri, Arkansas and South Carolina argues Congress never approved massive student loan cancellation. It asserts that the Biden administration and the U.S. Education Department aim to misuse emergency authority.