Savannah Britt owes about $27,000 on loans she took out to attend college at Rutgers University, a debt she hoped to see reduced through President Joe Biden’s efforts to forgive student loans.

Her payments are currently on hold while the courts rattle off challenges to the loan forgiveness program. But as the weeks tick by in Biden’s tenure, she could soon face a monthly payment of up to $250.

“With this new administration, the dream is gone. He’s shot,” said Britt, 30, who runs his own communications agency. “I was hopeful before Tuesday. I was waiting for the trial. Even my mother has a loan that she took out. to support me She owes about $18,000 and was in the process of being forgiven, but is at a standstill.”

President-elect Donald Trump and his fellow Republicans have criticized Biden’s efforts to forgive the loans, and GOP-led state lawsuits have supported plans for widespread debt cancellation. Trump has not said what he would do about the loan forgiveness, leaving millions of borrowers facing uncertainty about their personal finances.

The economy was a big issue in the election, helping to propel Trump to victory. But for borrowers, concerns about their finances extend beyond inflation to include student debt, said Persis Yu, managing counsel of the Student Borrower Protection Center.

“That’s a big part of what makes their lives unaffordable is this burden of expenses that they can’t seem to get out from under,” Yu said.

Student loan cancellation was not a campaign focus for either Trump or Vice President Kamala Harris, who avoided the issue at her political events. The issue only came up once in September’s presidential debate, when Trump hit Harris and Biden for failing to follow through on their promise of widespread pardons. Trump called it a “total disaster” that “made a mockery of young people.”

Biden promised the student loan cancellation program during his presidential run. Since its release, Biden’s loan forgiveness has faced relentless pushback from opponents who said it benefited the elites and came at the expense of those who paid back their loans or didn’t attend college.

Biden’s first plan to cancel up to $20,000 for millions of people was blocked by the Supreme Court last year. A second, narrower plan was blocked by a federal judge after Republican-led states sued. A separate policy aimed at reducing loan payments for troubled borrowers was halted by a judge, also after Republican-controlled states challenged it.

Overall, Biden’s efforts have been relatively unpopular, even among those with student loans. Three in 10 US adults said they approved of Biden’s handling of student debt, according to a poll this spring by the University of Chicago Harris School of Public Policy and The Associated Press-NORC Center for Public Affairs Research. Four out of 10 disapproved. The others were neutral or didn’t know enough to say.

Project 2025, the plan for a rightward turn of the US government that aligns with some of Trump’s priorities, calls for getting the federal government out of the student loan business and eliminating repayment plans that predate the Biden administration.

Even without directly addressing student loans, Trump made promises that would affect them. He pledged to eliminate the US Department of Education, which manages the $1.6 trillion portfolio of federal student loans. It’s unclear which entity would assume that responsibility if the department were eliminated, which would require congressional approval.

Yu noted that the Biden administration was able to cancel student loans for about 5 million borrowers, even as the signature forgiveness effort was blocked. The administration did so by leaning toward loan cancellation programs already in place. For example, an existing student loan forgiveness program for public service workers has given aid to more than 1 million Americans, up from just 7,000 that were approved before it was updated by the Biden administration two years ago .

“A lot of the rollback we’ve seen in the last two years has been because the Biden administration has committed to making the programs that are actually enshrined in law work for people,” Yu said.

Sabrina Calazans, 27, owes about $30,000 on federal student loans from her college days at Arcadia University in Pennsylvania. Her payments were also on hold, but she could soon be facing a monthly payment of more than $300.

“As a first-generation American, I live at home with my family, contribute to our household finances, and this payment means a lot to me and many others like me,” said Calazans, who is originally from Brazil.

In his role as executive director of the Student Debt Crisis Center, Calazans said he told people to stay up-to-date by using the loan simulator on the Federal Student Aid website and reading up-to-date information about forgiveness qualifications and programs of reimbursement.

“There’s a lot of confusion about student loans,” Calazans said, and not just among young people. “We see many parents taking on more debt for their children so they can go to school. We see older people going back to school and having to take out loans as well.”

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Associated Press education writer Collin Binkley in Washington, DC. contributed to this report.