(Washington, D.C.; 7/14/2023) – The US Council of Muslim Organizations (USCMO); the nation’s umbrella group of national, regional, and local Muslim organizations; fully supports and applauds the Biden Education Department’s announcement today that it will begin eliminating $39 billion in federal student loan debt for some 804,000 people who have long been eligible for forgiveness but were never informed, according to the office’s press release.
“Welcome news, as a debt-relief beginning,” said Oussama Jammal, secretary general for USCMO, the largest umbrella organization for Muslim groups in the U.S.
“But we should stay clear eyed about it,” he was quick to add. “First, these are people who mostly could have – and should have – been told that they were eligible for debt forgiveness after paying 20 to 25 years of forever payments for their student loans. That’s quite an expensive secret being kept from the American people by the federal government.”
“Second, $39 billion in forgiveness and 804,000 people sound like a lot, but that’s just a fraction of the stunningly disgraceful $1.6 trillion in student debt that’s been breaking the backs of a staggering 43.5 million Americans for going on five generations now, when you think in terms of families. And that includes the 3 million stuck in the financial suspended animation of default who we cannot forget.”
The Education Department called its imminent student debt discharge “fixes by the Biden-Harris administration” that correct “historical failures.” It said this debt forgiveness will be automatic and soon “implemented to ensure all borrowers have an accurate count of the number of monthly payments that qualify toward forgiveness under income-driven repayment (IDR) plans.”
The average student debt for white borrowers is $12,000, while Black American women wear an often life-long $52,000 iron necklace of debt enslavement – an unmistakable fetter of structural racism that our government’s only ethical choice is to remove.
In this light, it is noteworthy that the Biden Administration seems to be keeping to its promise to find a way to forgive student debt through a long rulemaking process, after the U.S. Supreme Court obliged the debt industry by striking down the HEROES Act, based on a 2003 law the agency invoked.
“Sometimes it pays to listen,” said Jammal. “Many of us advised the administration to use its much broader Higher Education Act (HEA) authorities to immediately cancel student debt and leave no time for the money magicians to conjure a court challenge through their Congressional minions to keep the chains on their indentured debtors.”
We support the Biden administration for signs of persistence in the good fight to free our fellow Americans from the immoral debt that is weighing down this nation. And, once again, we urge you Mr. President, and your people, to take heed and execute the next steps in student debt relief in all haste.
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