February 18, 2021

When I listened to Joe Biden's town hall the other night, I was basking in the warm glow of his competence and kindness.

Until he started talking about student debt. Most of what he said was, well, bull manure.

  • Forgiving $50,000 in student debt does not primarily benefit students who went to "elite" colleges. Those schools have financial aid packages that leave their students with the lowest amount of debt.
  • Then Bides was riffing on how he'd rather see people work off their debt by using their degrees to take targeted jobs.

Here's the problem with that. About 40 percent of those heavily burdened with student debt didn't graduate! (Because poor students often have sudden financial crises.) So they have the worst of both worlds: Student debt without the degree that could help them move up economically. (And in case you didn't know, once you're out of school? Good luck finding another school that will accept all your hard-earned credits.)

Oh, and a lot of that debt is from for-profit colleges, the ones that politicians made so easy to borrow from. (Thanks to major donors to both sides of the aisle.) Many of those students were members of the military, who chose those schools because they make it more convenient to hold down a job while attending.

Dems are pushing him hard on this, thank God:

Student loan debt is a huge drag on the economy, keeping young people from buying homes and starting families. I kind of think that Joe Biden (the man who removed student loans from the bankruptcy "reform" bill) owes it to them.

Discussion

We welcome relevant, respectful comments. Any comments that are sexist or in any other way deemed hateful by our staff will be deleted and constitute grounds for a ban from posting on the site. Please refer to our Terms of Service for information on our posting policy.
Mastodon