- The tens of millions of Americans saddled with student loans may finally hear soon — within the next few months — what the Biden administration has decided to do, if anything, on debt forgiveness.
- Signs this week suggest the White House is warming up to the idea of broad cancellation.
The tens of millions of Americans saddled with student loans may finally hear soon what the Biden administration has decided to do, if anything, on debt forgiveness.
“Not a single person in this country has paid a dime on federal student loans since the president took office,” White House press secretary Jen Psaki said at Monday’s press briefing, referring to the suspension of interest on the debt.
She went on to say that President Joe Biden “would make a decision about any cancellation of student debt before the conclusion of that pause on student loans.”
That pandemic-era relief staying the bills has been in effect for over two years, and it’s currently scheduled to expire on Aug. 31.
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Even before the public health crisis, repayment troubles were common among student loan borrowers.
“The country’s outstanding education debt balance exceeded $1.7 trillion and posed a larger burden to households than credit card or auto debt. Roughly a quarter of student loan borrowers — or 10 million people — were estimated to be in delinquency or default.”
The financial fallout of the public health crisis has only worsened the situation, experts say. A recent study found that surveyed student loan borrowers reported a 16% likelihood of quickly missing a payment if the payment pause ended.
Although Biden has expressed skepticism about sweeping student loan forgiveness in the past, another development this week suggests he may be warming up to the idea.
When the topic came up Monday with the Congressional Hispanic Caucus, the president indicated he was currently looking to provide some form of student debt cancellation, according to multiple reports.
Democrats and advocates have put intense pressure on the president to act ahead of the midterms, pointing out that student debt cancellation is a campaign promise he can deliver on without Congress, while much of his agenda has been stymied in the House and Senate.
It’s still a debate among some lawyers whether the president has the authority to forgive debt through executive action.
Meanwhile, opponents of student loan cancellation say the policy forces taxpayers to foot the bill for those who have benefited from higher education and is unfair to Americans who didn’t attend college, never borrowed, or have paid off their debt.
Advocates point out that the mushrooming cost of college has left people with little choice other than to borrow if they want to get a decent paying job, and that people of color and women are shouldering the most pain from the lending system. Two-thirds of federal student debt is held by women.
Around 70% of relief from a theoretical $50,000 in student debt forgiveness would go to those in middle-income and low-income neighborhoods, according to a recent study by The Federal Reserve Bank of New York.
My opinion is high school diploma is worthless. We should be teaching a trade, financial Literacy, and college and grad schools and tech schools should all be free. the reason we don’t have is it black people live in this country and we are still in a Racist society thank Trump for letting us all know nothing changed. The fear of black excellence is real and life would improve for black people with a trade or a Degree. Through the lens of restorative justice, Dr. Benjamin Williams discusses using the school system as a tool for empowering young men of color.
In the black area schools close and stack students on top of each other. Black people are trying to make a difference in young men’s life but no one does anything by themselves. You are always trying to change things when you don’t care about people they know, and governments do not care about black people. Kanye was right and this sucks. All black kids are not criminals. I had to grow a white beard so white people would stop being threatened by me. So I had to look at all the things in my life. I was delivering a bag and it was late in sundown at a place where black people would not want to be when the sun went down, I heard somebody load and cock a shotgun and point it at the door and all I had was a lost bag I was trying to deliver called by the supervisor I was coming home I had to drive to more hours back home. 80% of the people who are a felon are covicted, So you can’t work because you committed a crime or even if you serve your time. You can not even get a place to live. School is the only way to close the prison we have in this country.
Daniel Geiter is an ex-convict who due to his label, couldn’t even get a job washing dishes. Understanding that his only option for growth is education, he set himself on a path of getting an Ed.D. Not stopping with his own path, he decided that he should share the same opportunities he received by opening up a college.
Daniel Geiter, Ed.D. has been involved in higher education as a student, intern, and employee since his 2008 return to college as an adult learner. He has spent the past seven years working in student work-study programs at Moraine Valley Community College and as both a Program Assistant in the African American Studies Program and a Research Assistant at Saint Xavier University. He recently defended his doctoral dissertation in the Higher Education and Organization Change Program at Benedictine University.
As a convicted felon, Daniel has placed focus on issues relating to incarceration rates of African American men, a central point of his academic research. His belief is that the new frontier in research on underserved populations is no longer access to education. Currently, he serves as president of Ward College, a new institution of higher education on the South Side of Chicago dedicated to unleashing the potential of the whole student by setting the standard for virtue, and responsible.
This talk was given at a TEDx event using the TED conference format but independently organized by a local community.