ORLANDO, Fla. — Today the Supreme Court of the United States voted to block President Joe Biden’s student loan relief program in a move that left many borrowers looking for answers.

“It being struck down sets a lot of my financial goals backwards,” Gage Eggleston said.

He graduated from Florida State University with a degree in Media Production and, like many, has student debt. 

Currently, Florida ranks among the top of the list for student loan debt. According to data from LendingTree, at the end of last year, the average debt was $50,000. While Eggleston’s wasn’t that high, he still had a significant amount to pay off. 

For professionals in the work force, added costs to their monthly expenses can cause stress and problems.

“I’m lucky to live with my girlfriend, so dual income, and both of us get paid well, we’re doing ok, but what about the people who are $100,000 or more in debt, this is a major blow for them,” he said.

Eggleston always knew there was the possibility the plan would be struck down, which is why he planned ahead.

“Started saving up money when the student loan payments were paused and the interest was paused. I started saving up money to pay off my loans whenever they were reinstated,” he said.

Money he had saved up for his future.

“If this would have gone through, I would have only had to pay $500,” he said. “I won’t be buying a home in the next few years because I’m not going to have that money that I had saved up for, which is going to go towards student loans now.”

Eggleston says so many people could have benefitted from this, him included, but he thinks the whole higher education system needs to be changed.

“Schooling is just so expensive and college is not a guarantee of a well-paying job. So there are a lot of people taking on a lot of debt and not seeing very much benefit from it and I feel that means reform, to fix future generations and a onetime payment is not going to fix that,” he said.