SCOTUS Decision's Impact on Oklahoma Students

"I believe the court's decision to strike down my student debt relief program was a mistake,” says President Joe Biden.

It's back to the drawing board for President Biden’s attempt to provide financial relief to Americans with student loan debt.

“I mean, it was appreciated towards me because I didn't wanna pay that stuff back,” says Missouri Western State University and Oklahoma Native Kalvin Ball.

Ball says he was relieved during the Covid pandemic when President Biden announced his plan to forgive student loans. 

But he was disappointed to hear that U.S. Supreme Court struck down the plan.

“I think it's completely unfair, honestly. I mean, unless you're still like, you know what I’m saying, going to school or still pursuing school, but if you are done with school, I think it's completely unfair,” says Ball.

It doesn't mean there won't be a "plan b" for loan forgiveness.

“There are different programs that the president could use to grant the same type of relief. He could expand current programs that forgive student loans to include more types of professions,” says Founding Attorney at Omar Ocha Law Firm, Omar Ocha.

"First, I’m announcing today a new path consistent with today's ruling to provide student debt relief to as many borrowers as possible, as quickly as possible. We will ground this new approach in a different law than my original plan, a so-called higher education act,” says President Biden.

President Biden says that the pathway to loan forgiveness will take longer, but it is the best path forward in the wake of the Supreme Court's ruling in "Biden v. Nebraska"

Chief Justice John Roberts wrote the majority opinion saying in part:

"...where the Secretary of Education claims the authority, on his own, to release 43 million borrowers from their obligations to repay $430 billion in student loans. The secretary has never previously claimed powers of this magnitude under the heroes act."

The Heroes Act of 2003 allowed the Secretary of Education to grant debt relief for student loan borrowers in the wake of 9/11.

"A lot of those were wartime and military service conditions, but there's also a broad condition that allows a waiver or modification of student loan debt for a national emergency,” says Ocha.

Ocha says the legal challenges might not be finished just yet.

“It’s possible that we could see other lawsuits come up that tried to assert that the president and the executive branch didn't have the authority to go through some of the COVID-19 programs that were allotted. It would be a different question of law, because then, the loan specifically, that issue was tied to the 2003 Heroes Act, and so it, it'd be a different basis that, that somebody would've to attack. But most definitely, it's possible for somebody to raise that issue,” says Ocha.

The other major decision by the Supreme Court last week which impacts colleges stems from two lawsuits combined into one, Students for Fair Admissions v. Harvard College.

It involved both Harvard and the University of North Carolina using a racial standard for college admissions.

Chief Justice Roberts wrote the court's opinion on that case as well.

"It is far from evident, though, how assigning students to these racial categories and making admissions decisions based on them furthers the educational benefits that the universities claim to pursue."

ACLU of Oklahoma Executive Director Tamya Cox-Toure disagrees with the court's ruling.

"I’m a proud recipient and benefit of Affirmative Action, and those that have benefited from programs of equal opportunity should be proud of that. But what we know is that there continues to be systemic racism that hurts brown and black folks in our state and any opportunity that we can have to help that, those problems we should be taking,” says Cox-Toure.

The decision was celebrated by State Superintendent of Public Instruction Ryan Walters, who is a member of the OETA Board by virtual of his position.

After the decision, Walters released a statement saying:

"Oklahoma has led to get education focused on academic merits. This Supreme Court ruling resets education away from issues like D.E.I. and it allows kids the best outcomes as they enter into college."

The impact on Oklahoma’s public universities and colleges may not be as profound, thanks to voters approving SQ 759 in 2012. It prohibited the use of Affirmative Action in the admission process.

Oklahoma wasn't the only state to do that.

"In states that have already banned Affirmative Action, California being the first state, and one of them has one of the longest records of banning is that it does have an impact on universities. When we saw that in Oklahoma as well, that even if that impact is minor, that it still impacts just the wellbeing and the comprehensive education that students should have,” says Cox-Toure

The Oklahoma State Regents for Higher Education says as of this spring, nine of Oklahoma’s public colleges and universities had a majority non-white student body. They expect undergraduate enrollment to continue to move in that direction...despite the supreme court's decision.

Cox-Toure says she has faith that Oklahoma’s institutions of higher learning will continue to be diverse.

"So, while we are extremely disappointed with the supreme court's decision to end affirmative action in colleges and universities, what we know is that colleges and universities still have a commitment and hopefully will have a commitment to ensure diversity is a part of their schools on campus,” says Cox-Toure.

The data research group Words Rated, says that more than 400,000 Oklahomans are carrying 15.4 billion dollars in student loan debt. While that sounds like a rather large number, Oklahomans only have the 30th largest student loan debt burden in the U.S.