'It's absurd': Kent State students disappointed Supreme Court rejected loan forgiveness

For Carmen Ford, a Kent State University nursing student and a single mother of two, paying off her $70,000 in student loans is not an easy feat.

She had hoped to get some relief from President Biden's plan to erase up to $20,000 in student loans — until the U.S. Supreme Court on Friday struck down the plan.

"I don't understand why they can't even forgive at least $20,000 to help people," Ford said. "How are you going to start a life with thousands in debt?"

After the U.S. Supreme Court rejected Biden's student loan forgiveness plan for millions of Americans, Kent State students expressed shock and confusion.

"I don't know if it's a matter of greed like if they want everyone to pay it all back," Ford said. "For me, I plan to pay it enough to buy a home and provide for my kids, but me and that student loan debt will be going in the ground together."

Kent State political science and economics major Madelyn Profitt learned about the decision while working her morning shift at The Cleveland Bagel Cafe on the edge of campus.major.

She called the ruling "absurd."

"I think it's absurd that our own government won't allow forgiveness on something that costs us thousands of dollars and are expected to have this kind of debt that is unpayable for us," Profitt said. "It shows that the government doesn't really care about us."

The ruling comes on the heels of a U.S. Supreme Court decision banning affirmative action in college admissions.

Profitt said the affirmative action ruling was upsetting, leading her to question the integrity of the U.S. Supreme Court altogether.

"It just kind of it feels like we're going backward in history," she said.

Kent State graduate student Jordan Thompson had been hearing about the chaos around the student loan forgiveness plan and had conflicting feelings.

"It's weird to say that I don't care, but it was going to be such a small drop in the bucket for my student loans. I already did five years at Ohio University, so I already have those loans," Thompson explained. "It just seems like an inevitable bubble that's gonna pop, so if they wanna kick it down the road, like, good for them, but I feel like we're going to have a conversation about it eventually."

Thompson has degrees in religious studies and history from OU and is currently on track to get her masters in library and information science. Although some loan forgiveness would've been nice for her, she's not too surprised.

"It seems kind of strange that seven to nine people get to make these huge decisions that'll last for years," Thompson said. "But I didn't make the system, I just live in it."

Ford, the nursing student with two daughters, worries that the world she's raising her kids in is no better than before and only seems to be getting worse.

"They've [Supreme Court] taken a lot from people. I have two young African American girls, and it's going to be hard for them...they're trying to walk back so much progress and I don't understand why." Ford said with a sigh.

Like the other students on campus Friday, Ford summed up her thoughts on the current justice system in simple terms:

"There's enough of the pie for everybody, why do you want all of it?"

This article originally appeared on Akron Beacon Journal: What Kent State students had to say after loan forgiveness struck down