By Maria Carrasco, NASFAA Staff Reporter

Read our coverage on how a second Trump administration could impact student financial aid policy.

With the 2024 presidential election a little over a month away, Vice President Kamala Harris is beginning to debut her higher education platform – though questions remain about how her potential administration could impact student financial aid and how her approach might compare to President Joe Biden.

Throughout the past four years, the Biden administration has prioritized student loan debt relief through multiple initiatives. That includes an executive action that sought to cancel up to $20,000 in federal student loan debt for eligible borrowers, which was ultimately struck down by the U.S. Supreme Court in the summer of 2023. 

In response, the administration this year published its first set of draft rules developed through the negotiated rulemaking process to provide targeted student debt relief to borrowers. And those draft rules face a legal challenge after seven Republican led-states sued the Department of Education (ED) for “unlawfully trying to mass cancel hundreds of billions of dollars of loans.”

The administration has also prioritized implementing its new Saving on a Valuable Education (SAVE) repayment plan, which is a rebrand and revision of the REPAYE plan. The plan included provisions such as the elimination of negative amortization, monthly payments calculated using half the current percentage of discretionary income for undergraduate borrowers, from 10% to 5%, and a shorter timeline to forgiveness. However, an order from the 8th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals is currently blocking ED from implementing the program. 

Additionally, the Biden administration has introduced new rules through the negotiated rulemaking process on borrower defense, gainful employment and financial value transparency, and more.  

President Biden touted many of these initiatives throughout the summer as he pushed forward with his campaign for a second term, but following his decision to exit the race and endorse Harris – who quickly sealed the nomination of their party – the financial aid policy agenda for the Democratic ticket has become more uncertain. 

Preston Cooper, a senior fellow at the American Enterprise Institute, said if Harris became president, it's probable to see continuation of a lot of the policies under the Biden administration – including student loan cancellation. However, Cooper noted, there is a question of how broad loan cancellation could look under a Harris presidency. 

“Would we be getting the kind of more moderate persona that she's trying to present on the campaign trail right now, or the more progressive version that we saw during the primary in 2020?” Cooper said. “While she would probably continue many of the policies of the Biden administration, there is still this question about how far left would she be going on student aid policy, particularly on loan cancellation. Might she try to be even more aggressive than the Biden administration has been at canceling loans?”

So far, Harris has released some information on her higher education priorities. According to her website, Harris says she will “continue working to end the unreasonable burden of student loan debt and fight to make higher education more affordable.”

Michelle Dimino, director of education at Third Way, a public policy think tank, said she expects that a Harris administration would build on the efforts that she and Biden have made to improve affordability for students and to lower the burden of student loan debt. 

“Vice President Harris has a strong track record of supporting federal student aid, of advocating for increases in the Pell Grant, and looking for ways to simplify and streamline the student aid system,” Dimino said. “I would expect a continuation of those priorities if she was coming into the presidency.”

On Harris’s website, she wrote that under the Biden administration, she has provided nearly $170 billion in student debt relief for almost five million borrowers, and “delivered record investments” in  Historically Black Colleges and Universities (HBCUs), tribal colleges, Hispanic-Serving Institutions, and other minority-serving institutions. 

She highlighted that the administration has “helped more students afford college” by increasing the maximum Pell Grant award by $900, which is the largest increase in more than a decade, and invested in community colleges.

Additionally, Dimino wrote that higher education accountability could be a key part of a Harris administration, specifically in terms of borrower defense and school discharges, due to her experience as an attorney general. Notably, in 2013, Harris, California’s Attorney General at the time, sued Corinthian Colleges for misrepresenting job placement rates and program offerings to recruit vulnerable low-income students.

“I think one area in which I can see her being perhaps even more aggressive is consumer protections … she could use everything in the president's arsenal to continue to deliver relief for students that have been defrauded or harmed by their institutions,” Dimino said. “That’s really in her wheelhouse … and it's been a hallmark of the Biden administration as well.”

Cooper said Harris’s record indicated that ED could release more rules through the negotiated rulemaking process targeting gainful employment, borrower defense, and other higher education accountability measures. 

Dimino noted that this election cycle, the conversation around student debt relief for Harris may look a bit different than the 2020 presidential election because of the multiple initiatives the Biden administration has already introduced – and the legal challenges they have faced. 

“A lot of the questions around student debt cancellation were hypothetical, largely three or four years ago, before the Biden administration had pursued debt cancellation,” Dimino said. “We've seen some of those policies be proposed. We've seen how the courts have reacted, how there are legal challenges. So I think that she's just operating in a different context in that regard, because she's seen in five years what the administration has proposed, and how that has played out.”

Past Platform During the 2020 Presidential Race

Prior to joining the Biden administration, Harris was a candidate for the 2020 presidential election. She officially dropped out of that race on December 3, 2019. 

During her first presidential campaign Harris outlined additional policy positions related to student financial aid and higher education, which included support for free public two- or four-year college, implemented through a federal/state partnership. 

Harris also co-sponsored Sen. Bernie Sanders' (I-Vt.) College for All Act and endorsed Sen. Brian Schatz's (D-Hawaii) "debt-free" college bill. During the 2020 Democratic primary Harris stated that she would invest money into Historically Black Colleges and Universities (HBCUs) and other Minority-Serving Institutions (MSIs) to address the underrepresentation of teachers of color.

Additionally, during the 2020 presidential race, Harris released several higher education-related proposals, including a plan to reduce student loan debt. Under the plan, Pell Grant recipients with student loans who start a business that operates for three years in disadvantaged communities would have up to $20,000 of their debt forgiven. In 2019, she also introduced the Basic Assistance for Students In College (BASIC) Act that would ensure college students "are able to afford basic, day-to-day necessities.”

"As the campaign continues to unfold, it will be interesting to see if Harris commits to doubling the Pell Grant in the same way that President Biden sought," said Nalia Medina, NASFAA’s assistant director of government relations. "We will continue to monitor Harris' campaign platform and use our advocacy tools to ensure that student access to financial aid is protected and expanded." 

Stay tuned to Today’s News for more updates on how the 2024 election will impact student financial aid policy. 

Publication Date: 10/3/2024

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