Show Me The Money, The War on Student Loan Debt
As several colleges and universities return to campus, the jury is still out on what the future holds on Biden’s plan for student loan forgiveness.
US Education Secretary Miguel Cardona recently announced that in the coming weeks, the 46th President of the United States will make a decision regarding the current pause on student loans. In an interview with NBC’s Chuck Todd on ‘Meet The Press’, Cardona said, “We’ve been talking daily about this, and I can tell you the American people will hear within the next week or so from the President and the Department of Education on what we’re going to be doing around that.”
This announcement will come just days after Biden recently made headlines about canceling $3.9 billion in student loan debt for 208,000 students who attended the now-defunct for-profit ITT Technical Institute. This, in addition to the other student loan debt he has canceled for other defunct schools and disabled borrowers, places the amount at $32 billion.
Writer Katie Lobosco, in her 2022 article for CNN, “What To Know About These 5 Student Loan Forgiveness Programs – and How Biden Has Expanded Them”, writes, “The federal government already has a number of programs that offer student debt forgiveness for certain groups of borrowers, usually after they make a specific number of payments…There’s a debt relief program for nonprofit and government workers as well as one for borrowers who were defrauded by their colleges. Borrowers who are permanently disabled are also eligible for federal student loan cancellation… Under Biden, some of these programs have been temporarily expanded, making it easier for some borrowers to qualify for forgiveness.”
Economists and Financial researchers alike have conflicting stances on whether canceling student loan debt would help or hinder the economy. Like any other balance sheet, deducting from expenses doesn’t necessarily improve the bottom line; it’s more of a temporary fix. With these programs that are aiding borrowers in payoffs, they seem to do absolutely nothing for individuals who, due to rises in tuition costs at the college level and almost no worthy-enough ROI, are still beset with applying for student loans.
Is President Biden attempting to make the dream of earning a college degree more affordable? Is President Biden attempting to make the dream of earning a college degree more attainable? These are the questions the American public are asking. Are there scholarships and other financial assistance programs that are helping students obtain a college degree? Yes. Is obtaining a college degree worth every investment going into it? Some argue yes and some argue no. Regardless of where one stands on the bottom line, inflation, rising tuition costs and accompanying expenses are proving to make the task of obtaining a college degree and the ability to live a balanced and affordable life more complicated than ever before.
