Student loan borrowers gather near The White House to tell President Biden to cancel student debt on May 12, 2020.Paul Morigi | Getty Images Entertainment | Getty ImagesStudent loan default rates could dramatically spike if the Biden administration’s loan forgiveness plan is blocked, a top official for the U.S. Department of Education said in a new court filing. The warning came as the Department of Justice asked a federal judge in Texas to stay an order that has temporarily blocked the Biden administration’s debt relief program.”Unless the [Education] Department is allowed to provide debt relief, we anticipate there could be an historically large increase in the amount of federal student loan delinquency and defaults as a result of the COVID-19 pandemic,” Education Department Under Secretary James Kvaal said in the filing. The Biden administration stopped accepting applications for its student loan forgiveness …
