President Biden is not going to search re-election, he introduced Sunday. The information capped weeks of debate about his means to defeat former president Donald Trump, the Republican nominee, and spelled the upcoming finish of a White Home tenure that has been full of formidable plans to forgive pupil loans and make increased training work higher for college students.
“It has been the best honor of my life to function your President,” Biden wrote in a letter posted on social media. “And whereas it has been my intention to hunt reelection, I imagine it’s in the most effective curiosity of my social gathering and the nation for me to face down and to focus solely on fulfilling my duties as President for the rest of my time period.”
Biden wrote that he’ll communicate to the nation later this week about his resolution. In a subsequent publish on social media, he endorsed Vice President Kamala Harris to be the Democratic presidential nominee.
The story of Biden’s increased ed legacy shouldn’t be but completed. Numerous modifications are nonetheless within the works as he heads into the ultimate six months of his presidency—together with a sweeping plan to forgive pupil loans for almost 28 million People—and authorized challenges may block a few of Biden’s most vital initiatives. However the president and his administration have labored to roll again guidelines and laws put in place throughout the Trump administration, overhauled pupil mortgage packages—making it simpler for tens of millions of debtors to entry aid—and stepped up scrutiny of packages that don’t repay for graduates.
“I believe his legacy might be one as a powerful training president,” mentioned Michelle Dimino, director of the training program at Third Approach, a left-of-center suppose tank. “No person can say that President Biden hasn’t been a student-centered training reform proponent.”
As a candidate, Biden pledged to make group faculty free, double the Pell Grant and forgive $10,000 in pupil loans for debtors, amongst different guarantees. A lot of these guarantees stay unfulfilled, thwarted by Congress or the courts.
Greater than any prior president, Biden has sought to make use of govt energy to forgive pupil loans—a coverage stance that gained help amongst Democratic lawmakers following a decade-long marketing campaign by students, debtors and advocates to focus on the issue of pupil mortgage debt. To this point, his administration has forgiven $168.5 billion in pupil loans for almost 5 million People.
“From day one, I promised to repair damaged pupil mortgage packages and ensure increased training is a ticket to the center class, not a barrier to alternative,” Biden mentioned on social media in March.
However his signature plan to forgive as much as $20,000 in pupil loans for 40 million People was struck down by the Supreme Court docket in 2023. A farther-reaching plan finalized within the wake of the Supreme Court docket resolution that makes pupil mortgage funds extra reasonably priced and affords present and future debtors a faster pathway to forgiveness is at the moment tied up within the courts. Republicans have repeatedly argued that Biden didn’t have the authority to forgive pupil loans and make funds extra reasonably priced.
“The story right here is of overreach,” mentioned Preston Cooper, a senior fellow on the Basis for Analysis on Equal Alternative, a market-friendly suppose tank. “By overreaching on pupil mortgage forgiveness, he’s made his increased training legacy look not very profitable.”
The administration’s rewrite of Title IX, which fulfilled one other marketing campaign promise and strengthens protections for LGBTQ+ college students, can be dealing with a slew of authorized challenges. Judges have put it on maintain in 15 states and a whole lot of faculties in different states.
Even when these insurance policies don’t survive, the Biden administration has made various modifications that would stick, although some—if not most—could also be rolled again if Trump wins in November. The checklist is lengthy. It consists of increasing the Pell Grant to college students in jail, issuing a new and stronger rule to carry profession teaching programs accountable, retooling focused debt-relief packages, including new necessities for schools that need to entry federal monetary support, banning transcript withholding normally, and requiring schools to report extra knowledge about the price of their packages and the way college students pay for them.
And the administration isn’t performed but. Simply final week, the Biden administration proposed opening up TRIO, a federal college-prep program, to undocumented college students—a long-sought precedence for advocates—in addition to new measures to bolster oversight of distance teaching programs.
Past laws, Biden secured file will increase to the Pell Grant within the federal funds. The utmost Pell Grant hasn’t doubled, but it surely has elevated by 16 p.c throughout his time period. The administration additionally boosted funding in traditionally Black schools and universities and different minority-serving establishments. The Biden administration mentioned in Could that it had secured a file $16 billion for HBCUs over the past 4 years.
The administration additionally distributed almost billions in COVID-19 emergency support, which helped college students keep enrolled by masking the price of primary wants. The cash additionally helped schools take in the shock of enrollment declines, misplaced income and different monetary stressors throughout the pandemic. U.S. schools and universities obtained greater than $76 billion in federal COVID emergency aid funds over three rounds in 2020 and 2021—most of which was administered by the Biden administration.
“School directors nonetheless do not forget that very properly,” mentioned David Baime, senior vp for presidency relations for the American Affiliation of Neighborhood Schools. The administration received the cash out the door effectively, he mentioned, and was versatile in how schools spent the funds, offering a “great” profit to college students and campuses.
“The manager department was actually crucial in guaranteeing that the funds had been as helpful as they had been to campuses,” Baime mentioned.
Baime added that Biden’s help totally free group faculty in funds proposals and laws helped to speed up state-level packages that cowl the price of group faculty, regardless of congressional inaction.
The Biden administration’s botched rollout of the brand new Free Utility for Federal Scholar Support will seemingly taint his increased ed legacy, although. To this point this yr, FAFSA completion charges amongst highschool seniors are down by 11 p.c in comparison with final yr. Schools have nervous that the a number of delays and technical points with the shape will deter some college students from pursuing a postsecondary training this educational yr. These fears are beginning to be realized, although establishments are nonetheless working to recruit college students. Simply final week, American College mentioned it fell in need of its undergraduate enrollment objective and faces a $23 million funds shortfall.
“The stumbles that the division bumped into there, maybe sadly, will overshadow a few of their successes, which is absolutely too dangerous,” mentioned Carolyn Quick, director of upper training coverage and a senior fellow on the Century Basis, a progressive suppose tank. “They’ve actually been profitable in so many different areas.”
Quick mentioned that Biden and his group have “monumentally modified how issues work for debtors,” which she thinks they haven’t gotten sufficient credit score for. Amongst different issues, she mentioned Biden ought to be remembered for fixing recognizing the Public Service Mortgage Forgiveness program. PSLF affords debtors who work in public service jobs resembling instructing a technique to discharge their loans after 10 years of funds. This system was created by Congress in 2007, so in 2017, the primary group of debtors turned eligible for forgiveness. However in actuality, few had been capable of entry that aid.
Earlier than Biden took workplace, about 7,000 individuals had obtained debt aid by way of PSLF, in accordance with a division information launch. Now, about 946,000 debtors have seen their loans worn out, totaling $69.2 billion.
Over all, Quick mentioned, the Biden administration has been targeted on methods to “fulfill the promise of upper training for all college students and actually help entry and fairness.”
The Training Division additionally cracked down on predatory colleges and establishments that don’t comply with the regulation, ensuring there have been penalties for misconduct. The division below Biden has issued file fines and sought to recoup tens of millions from establishments that it discovered to be deceptive college students.
“They could have made it extra clear that [federal financial aid] isn’t an entitlement,” Quick mentioned. “Faculties get billions of {dollars} in federal cash, and it does include protections and necessities. I believe that’s precisely the fitting angle.”
Dimino mentioned the Biden administration’s predominant mission on increased ed was to create a fairer system that works higher for college students and ensures their investments repay. Just like the Obama administration, Biden officers approached increased training by way of a consumer-protection lens. However the Biden group went additional, Dimino mentioned, and set a normal for the Democratic Get together’s future method to utilizing federal coverage to higher defend college students.
“The baseline has actually been moved towards better safety, towards extra consideration to predatory establishments and defending college students in opposition to them, and towards guaranteeing that these laws are honest and safeguard these mechanisms for cancellation that exist within the regulation,” she mentioned.
