When President Joe Biden delivered his first State of the Union tackle on Tuesday night time, there was one main subject notable by its absence: scholar mortgage debt.

On the marketing campaign path, Biden repeatedly pledged to cancel scholar mortgage debt—and it was highlighted as a part of his administration's plan to advance racial fairness.

Individuals collectively maintain roughly $1.75 trillion in scholar mortgage debt. In December, the Biden administration prolonged a pause on scholar mortgage repayments by means of Could 1, 2022, citing the continued impression of the coronavirus pandemic.

Some advocates had been hopeful the president would define a plan to cancel scholar mortgage debt throughout Tuesday night time's tackle.

Whereas he did point out plans to deal with school affordability, together with growing the utmost Pell Grant award, the problem of the scholar debt disaster did not come up in any respect throughout Biden's 62-minute speech.

"President Biden could not have felt compelled to deal with the scholar mortgage drawback in his tackle, however the actuality is that only a few individuals will likely be compelled to start repaying their loans on Could 1," Alan Collinge, the founding father of grassroots group College students Loans Justice, advised Newsweek.

Biden delivers State of the Union address
U.S. President Joe Biden delivers the State of the Union tackle to a joint session of Congress within the U.S. Capitol Home Chamber on March 1, 2022 in Washington, DC. Saul Loeb/Pool/Getty Photos

"This lending system is catastrophically failed, and nothing the president would possibly say—or not say—will not change that reality."

Collinge added that Biden can "presumably spend the following three years pretending this lending system remains to be professional, or (presumably) the following seven years changing this failed experiment with the next training financing mannequin that really works."

In a progressive response to Biden's speech, Democratic Rep. Rashida Tlaib stated Biden may "use his government energy to take motion proper now to ship for the individuals" on points like canceling scholar mortgage debt.

"He can cancel federal scholar mortgage debt, which might be a lifeline for hundreds of thousands of Individuals and a transformative financial stimulus," she stated, talking on behalf of the Working Households Celebration.

Many individuals additionally took to Twitter to notice Biden's failure to say the problem and urge him to take motion.

"My favourite a part of the State of the Union tonight was when @POTUS talked about each purpose Individuals are struggling financially EXCEPT crushing scholar mortgage debt," Rachel Bridges wrote. "If you wish to give individuals aid within the face of rising inflation, #CancelStudentDebt now."

Briahna Pleasure Grey, Bernie Sanders' former press secretary, wrote: "A reminder that @POTUS promised to cancel the scholar mortgage debt of all #HBCU graduates, may achieve this by government order, and is selecting not to take action."

Forward of Biden's tackle, the nonprofit Pupil Borrower Safety Middle and Knowledge for Progress launched the outcomes of a brand new ballot that discovered that a majority of seemingly voters assist authorities motion to cancel some or all scholar mortgage debt.

Assist is increased amongst individuals of shade—with 74 % of Black seemingly voters and 82 % of Latino seemingly voters saying the federal government ought to eradicate some or all scholar mortgage debt.

"When Joe Biden ran for president, he promised to take daring motion to shut the racial wealth hole by canceling scholar debt for everybody," SBPC government director Mike Pierce stated in a press release forward of the State of the Union tackle.

"We all know most Individuals with scholar debt are fearful about what it means so as to add a scholar mortgage invoice on high of the rising price of fundamental requirements. As President Biden addresses an anxious nation dealing with warfare overseas and a permanent pandemic at residence, the Individuals who put him in workplace can't wait any longer for him to ship."