After lengthy deliberations, the Biden administration will announce on Wednesday that it will forgive some student debt.

According to the New York Times, the White House will cancel $10,000 worth of debt for Americans earning $125,000 or less per year, as well as an additional $10,000 of debt forgiveness for those with Pell grants. In addition, the White House will continue the loan payment pause through the end of the year, although this will be the final extension, per Politico.

The White House will argue that about 90 percent of the relief will go to those with household incomes of $75,000 a year or less.

It’s been clear for much of the Biden presidency that student debt relief was a very contentious issue, even inside the White House. But reporting also shows that Sen. Charles Schumer (D-NY), the Senate majority leader, was strongly encouraging the president to forgive at least some debt.

The political implications of the administration’s move are unclear. Some who already paid off their own debts are likely to criticize the move for being unfair to them, while many further to the left were hoping for more of the debt to be wiped out. There are also concerns, on which economists and other experts are divided, over whether the action could hurt inflation.

Derrick Johnson, president of the NAACP and a longtime advocate for debt forgiveness, called the reported move insufficient.

“If the rumors are true, we’ve got a problem,” Johnson said, per Politico.

“President Biden’s decision on student debt cannot become the latest example of a policy that has left Black people — especially Black women — behind. … This is not how you treat Black voters who turned out in record numbers and provided 90 percent of their vote to once again save democracy in 2020.”

Sen. Elizabeth Warren (D-MA) praised the president’s decision.

"The Biden Administration has already cancelled student debt for more than 175,000 Americans in public service,” the senator and former presidential candidate said on Twitter. “This is life changing for thousands of workers like teachers and nurses. Let's keep rebuilding the middle class.”

Sen. Todd Young (R-IN) took the opposite position.

“Asking Hoosiers who didn’t attend college or already paid off their college debt to foot the bill for others is a misguided proposal. It will do nothing to make higher education more affordable, which is what we should really be focused on,” he said.

The Times estimated that the move will have a cost of about $300 billion, although “the true cost is harder to calculate, and smaller because much of that debt was unlikely to ever be repaid.”

Stephen Silver, a technology writer for The National Interest, is a journalist, essayist and film critic, who is also a contributor to The Philadelphia Inquirer, Philly Voice, Philadelphia Weekly, the Jewish Telegraphic Agency, Living Life Fearless, Backstage magazine, Broad Street Review and Splice Today. The co-founder of the Philadelphia Film Critics Circle, Stephen lives in suburban Philadelphia with his wife and two sons. Follow him on Twitter at @StephenSilver.

Image: Reuters.