'A lot of chaos': Locals react to strikedown of Biden's student loan forgiveness plan

Friday's move by the United States Supreme Court to strike down President Joe Biden's student loan forgiveness plan impacts 43 million Americans. Of the total, 20 million could have had all of their student loans wiped out.

In the 6-3 decision, the majority opinion said Biden overstepped his power with the student loan forgiveness plan. The dissenting opinion argued the Supreme Court is overreaching with this ruling.

Omid Ordoubadi's student loan debt is on his mind.

"I took some out to go to N.C. State, and I didn't end up completing my degree, went into a different life path," Ordoubadi said. "I find some trouble in the fact that these high cost loans require you to get a high paying job afterwards. That can be a struggle."

Friday's Supreme Court ruling leaves Ordoubadi with even more questions.

"It's there, it's kind of just like a cloud over me, you know, am I going to pay this, when it is going to happen," Ordoubadi said.

Duke University student Anthony Salgado earned a scholarship, but he knows not everyone has that opportunity.

"To pull yourself up by your bootstraps ... some people don't even have boots," he said. "I feel really sorry for my brother and a lot of my family members. My mom has student loan debt."

Biden's loan forgiveness plan would have cost more than $400 billion, a price some said was too high, and the Supreme Court ruled the president didn't have the authority under the law.

Kate Sablosky Elengold, an assistant professor at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, said this will have far-reaching impacts.

"I think we will see student loan borrowers who are struggling, I think we will see legal questions as they start to begin repayment," Elengold said. "A lot of the servicers who are the in-betweens between the borrowers and the Department of Education have changed, so they're new. I think that we're going to see a lot of a chaos really."

Payments that have been deferred since the pandemic are set to start being due in October.

Once the deferral period ends, borrowers who can’t or don't pay risk delinquency and eventually default. That can badly hurt your credit rating and make you ineligible for additional aid and government benefits.