LAKELAND, Fla. — Millions of Americans with student loans anxiously await the U.S. Supreme Court’s decision on student loans repayment. 

What You Need To Know

  • President Joe Biden made it a campaign promise to wipe student loan debt

  • Supreme Court is expected to release its ruling by the end of the week

  • Student loan interest will start accruing on Sept. 1 and payments start in October

President Joe Biden made it a campaign promise to wipe student loan debt, at a cost of $400 billion to taxpayers. His plan would wipe $20,000 from what an individual owes back.

Borrowers with student loans, on average, owe back $37,388; and one in five would struggle to make monthly payments when they resume on Sept. 1.

After three years, the pandemic-era freeze on student loan payments will end soon. Student loan interest will start accruing on Sept. 1 and payments are starting in October.

It’s not just young Americans anxiously awaiting the SCOTUS’ ruling.           

Mike Kozinski and his wife live in Lakeland and took loans out for their two kids to go to college in 2007. But it was around that time when Kozinski lost his job as a real estate broker.

“We were determined that they were going to go. They were going to go no matter what,” Kozinski said. “We ended up borrowing a lot, everything we could for the student loans.”

The Kozinskis say they still owe around $9,000 on the loans, which would be wiped out if the Supreme Court rules in favor of Biden’s plan.

But the White House has not been confident SCOTUS will side with the president, and even if it does, the Department of Education has said the pause on student loan payments will be lifted effective on Sept. 1.

The Kozinskis continued paying student loans even after the pause went into effect in 2020. However, in January, Kozinski’s wife had to stop working due to back injuries.

And now on a single income, if payments resume this fall, the Kozinskis say they would need to make adjustments to their budget to make ends meet.

“We’re going to make it work one way or another.  That’s just how we’ve done all of our lives,” Kozinski said. “Concerned is probably … she would probably say, ‘I am always concerned. And I am more now.’”

The Supreme Court is expected to release its ruling by the end of the week.

The Associated Press contributed to this story.