Education Secretary says US to use 'whatever pathway we can' on student loan relief

Transcript

STEVE INSKEEP, HOST:

The man who oversaw the student loan forgiveness is Miguel Cardona. He's a one-time fourth-grade teacher in Connecticut who rose to become President Biden's education secretary. The Supreme Court opinions over the student loans refer to him 151 times. And now it is his job to help pick up the pieces. Mr. Secretary, welcome to the program.

MIGUEL CARDONA: Good morning. Thank you.

INSKEEP: OK. We heard the president say on Friday that he would use a different law to forgive student loans again. Is that really going to work?

CARDONA: Yes, we are moving forward with the authority given to me under the Higher Education Act. And, you know, we're going to keep fighting. We believe the Supreme Court got it completely wrong. We believe that they were ideological plaintiffs. And I had the authority under the Heroes Act, but that decision was made. We're going to move forward using whatever pathway we can to provide debt relief.

INSKEEP: I want to ask about the practical effect of that because I was reading the Supreme Court opinions, as many people were, and, of course, the Supreme Court majority, the conservative majority, invoked what they call the major questions doctrine, a recent innovation of conservative legal scholars. And a simple way to put it is that even if the law seems to you to give you discretion to do something like forgive a lot of student loans, they're not going to let you do it. They're going to tell you that that belongs to Congress even if you think you have discretion. Aren't you just going to be blocked again?

CARDONA: You know, in my opinion, the court substituted itself for Congress. The Heroes Act stated very clearly I can waive or modify any statutory regulatory provision. So unfortunately, that's the context that we're in right now. I mean, the court has made a series of poor decisions.

INSKEEP: But I mean, Chief Justice Roberts said you completely rewrote it, and he's got the power. Isn't he going to block you a second time?

CARDONA: Well, we're using the SCOTUS decision and how they rationalize their decisions to guide our next step forward. So we're taking that into account. And we do believe we have a legal path to provide debt forgiveness.

INSKEEP: So I know that you're going to hold off on proceedings against people who can't pay in the months ahead. You're also going forward with this effort to regulate a new way to forgive student loans. Would you then tell the millions of borrowers, some of who may be listening now, don't worry? We got this. You're not going to be saddled with this student debt. It's going to get fixed.

CARDONA: The three things that we're doing are creating another pathway to debt forgiveness, which the process is going to take longer, as you heard the president on Friday.

INSKEEP: Right.

CARDONA: We're also rolling out the income-driven repayment plan, which is, we believe, to be - it's going to be a game changer for so many who want to go to college but can't afford the monthly payments. We're rolling that out this summer. And we are doing an on-ramp to reduce the potential for delinquencies for those who are struggling to make payments their first year. Despite the payment pause ending and insurance - excuse me - interest accruing, we do want to make sure we're supporting our borrowers. My message to borrowers is this. We're not done fighting. We're going to continue to fight. We recognize how important it is to them. And this administration's going to keep fighting. That's the message that I want the borrowers to hear.

INSKEEP: Would you reassure them that they don't need to plan on paying back those loans?

CARDONA: Of course not. I - there's a - we're restarting the loans. What I'm - what I want to reassure them is that there's one team that is fighting for them, and there's a team that's trying to block them. And the team that's trying to block them have received millions in debt forgiveness themselves. So the hypocrisy really speaks for itself. We're going to keep fighting for them. We recognize higher education should be accessible to more people in this country, and you shouldn't be saddled in debt for the rest of your life. That's what we're fighting for.

INSKEEP: I guess when you refer to millions in debt forgiveness, you're referring to pandemic loan forgiveness. And there were members of Congress who were associated with that. But moving on from that issue, just very briefly, there was, of course, another ruling in education last week. The Supreme Court said it is unconstitutional for elite universities to use race as a factor in choosing which students to admit. It seems to me universities have a choice. They can just do away with affirmative action or try to find some creative other way to do it legally. What advice would you give universities across the country?

CARDONA: Well, yeah, this is another decision that really takes us back. You know, in this country, we're OK with taking into account wealth and lineage and legacy status, but to look at racial balance in a school to make sure that there are diverse learning environments - that - people have a problem with that. We're not taking that lightly, either. Within 45 days, we're going to have guidance for college presidents. We're going to do a national convening, national summit on educational opportunity at the Department of Education, and then we're going to publish best practices so that college presidents and boards of trustees can learn from one another on how to maintain a diverse student body. We know that when students learn in a diverse student body, they get a better education. Everyone benefits from that.

INSKEEP: So your goal is to continue pushing for diversity, even after the Supreme Court has said that is wrong, at least the way you've been doing it.

CARDONA: Absolutely. And the Supreme Court didn't say it was wrong. The Supreme Court took away a tool that we used to promote racial diversity. So it was a tool, meaning using race when all things are equal and we have candidates that have earned their way into the campus and they have to decide between students using race as a factor to determine racial balance. So it doesn't touch the intent. Our intent is stronger than ever to make sure that all students have access.

INSKEEP: OK. Education Secretary Miguel Cardona, it's been a pleasure talking with you. Thank you very much, sir.

CARDONA: Thank you, Steve. Transcript provided by NPR, Copyright NPR.