There are reports that Biden is considering student loan relief.
Cheryl said that the amount wouldn't affect her student debt load.
She said she doesn't mind paying back what she borrowed.
If it weren't for compounding interest, Cheryl thinks the President's plan to forgive student debt for federal borrowers might have made a difference for her.
The president's plan isn't enough because it has $303,000 in federal student debt.
Cheryl told Insider that it wasn't a drop in the bucket. If you wanted to make a difference, you could do away with half the interest, but I will never be able to cover the payments.
She had to take out student loans for her bachelor's degree in English and her master's degree in education. She doesn't have a problem paying back the debt she borrowed, but the problem is the interest that accrued while she was in school. It is almost impossible for her to reach her principal balance at her current income level.
Recent reports suggest that Biden is looking at giving $10,000 in student-loan relief for federal borrowers making under $150,000 a year. While that's an amount he pledged to fulfill on the campaign trail, many Democratic lawmakers and advocates had hoped he would go bigger and they are disappointed he appears to have settled on an amount that would hardly make a difference.
Wisdom Cole, the national director of the NAACP Youth & College Division, said that $30,000 is not enough. We have to cancel a lot of money. Shouldn't the goal be to get the most relief for the most borrowers?
Student-loan payments are set to resume after August 31, but the Biden administration will make an announcement before then. Cheryl said she won't be able to pay her federal debt bill if it's $10,000 in forgiveness, as she's getting ready to send her nephew to college.
Cheryl said she's totally screwed. I'm trying to put a kid through college but it doesn't pay for everything. I don't know how I'm going to do it, I will have to find a new job.
During the payment pause, Cheryl didn't have to make the $200 federal monthly payments on her student loans, and she was able to afford other basic necessities.
There's not much left after I pay for gas, groceries, and everything else, Cheryl said. You can't get out of this nasty little loop because I can't afford to pay it down.
Although Cheryl's profession technically qualifies for the Public Service Loan Forgiveness program, which forgives student debt for public servants after ten years of qualified payments, she was denied due to her time spent in payment forbearance while in school.
Cheryl said "the money made from teaching will never come close to what you need to borrow to become one" after the Education Department announced actions to allow past payments to be counted toward forgiveness.
Biden has not confirmed the amount of student debt he will cancel for federal borrowers, but when he said $50,000 in relief was off the table last month, some Democratic lawmakers and advocates worried. Elizabeth Warren, one of the leading voices for broad student-loan forgiveness, released data that showed how going bigger on relief will be much more impact.
Thirty million federal borrowers would have their balances zeroed out if $50,000 in debt relief was used, compared to 13 million borrowers who would have their balances reduced by $10,000.
"As this analysis clearly shows, canceling student debt is a matter of racial justice and about providing relief to millions of hard-working people who invested in their education but are now drown in debt," she said. The bigger the boost to Americans' economic futures, the more President Biden will cancel. It's the right thing to do.
Republican lawmakers say the same thing. In the past, Insider has reported on the GOP's concerns about Biden canceling student debt in order to win votes for the Democrats in the upcoming elections.
The issue is simple for Cheryl, she wants to repay what she borrowed.
Cheryl doesn't mind paying back the money she borrowed. The government makes their money off of me.
Business Insider has an article on it.
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