To Forgive or Not to Forgive: The Student Loan Question

“Contrary to what many activists want, the Education Department’s latest move tries to target federal aid to those who really need it. The income-driven repayment program limits monthly payments to a certain percentage of borrowers’ income, enabling people who pursue their desired careers without worrying how they will pay off their student loans. After 20 to 25 years of repayments, the program cancels borrowers’ remaining debt…

At least the Biden administration’s move aims debt forgiveness at those in income-related repayment programs. By contrast, across-the-board student debt cancellation, which left-wing activists and politicians demand, would amount to a regressive subsidy for many high-income university graduates…

Even offering borrowers $20,000 or $10,000 of debt cancellation would be a major waste if mistargeted. A broad cancellation would offer huge, undeserved benefits to doctors, lawyers and others who do not need taxpayers to foot the bill for their valuable educations… And it would be expensive. Simply extending the pandemic-era pause on student loan payments for four more months, which the Biden administration did this month, will cost some $20 billion. That could finance massive numbers of Pell Grants for poor students.

Canceling student debt has become a trendy cause in left-wing circles in part because, advocates insist, Congress delegated so much power over student loans to the executive branch that the president could make this massive change with the stroke of a pen. Mr. Biden should continue to resist these irresponsible demands, even as his administration looks for ways to offer more targeted relief. Congress, meanwhile, should make clear that high-income borrowers need no more federal help and instead put the money into college finance programs tailored to aid the needy.”

“Like millions of others across time, I’m paying back the large sum of money I borrowed to fund my education by myself. But that doesn’t preclude me from hoping that our administration does all it can to relieve as many other borrowers as possible…

The idea that current borrowers should be made to suffer through a record-breaking student loan crisis simply because those who came before them begrudgingly paid off their educational costs without such federal help is not a compelling reason to watch people crumble under the weight of debt…

The debate about student loan forgiveness also reveals a misguided take on fairness. It’s not unfair to make it easier for borrowers to have their loans forgiven, as some have argued, just because many people who can afford to pay off their debt will benefit while those who never attended college won’t. To the notion that some people who don’t need the financial help will benefit, I say, so what? Most people can use the money…

And while loan forgiveness programs don’t factor in people who didn’t attend college, I’m not sure how that’s a sign of unfairness. Lots of funding in our society helps specific groups rather than the whole (disabled people, older adults and public school students, to name a few) out of a sense of civic duty and the belief that a nation’s job is to assist communities in need…

As I make next month’s payment on my own student loan, I see nothing wrong or controversial about my fellow Americans getting some economic relief even though I, myself, am not receiving it because I don’t fit the criteria.”