Research by RSF grantee and incoming RSF visiting scholar Núria Rodríguez-Planas was cited in a Supreme Court case on the Biden Administration’s student loan forgiveness program.

In August 2022, the Biden Administration announced its plan to enact a federal student loan forgiveness program, which would forgive $10,000 of student loan debt for individuals making less than $125,000 a year or less than $250,000 per household. An additional $10,000 would be forgiven for Pell Grant recipients – undergraduate students who display exceptional financial need. Subsequently, the states of Nebraska, Missouri, Arkansas, Iowa, Kansas, and South Carolina challenged the program. In response, the Eight Circuit Court of Appeals issued an injunction preventing the program from taking effect. In January, the Biden Administration filed an amicus curiae brief requesting that the U.S. Supreme Court vacate the injunction. The brief cited research by Rodríguez-Planas, published in the Economics of Education Review, which investigated the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on college students. 

In her study, Rodríguez-Planas surveyed over 3,000 urban college students in summer 2020 to better understand the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on student outcomes. She found that while many students experienced significant disruptions due to the pandemic, Pell Grant recipients were more likely to be negatively impacted. Pell Grant recipients were 20% more likely than non-Pell Grant recipients to lose their jobs, 17% more likely to experience earning loss, and 15% more likely to expect lower annual household income. Additionally, Pell Grant recipients were 65% more likely to face food and shelter insecurity.

Núria Rodríguez-Planas is Professor of Economics at City University of New York, Queens College. She is an RSF research grant recipient and will be an RSF visiting scholar during the 2023-2024 academic year.

Read the announcement from CUNY Graduate Center.
Read the full brief.
Read the full article.