President Joe Biden has made another attempt at student loan cancellation, this time, invoking the Higher Education Act. The goal is to provide relief for an estimated 25 million graduates, and eliminate debt for another 5 million borrowers.
This proposal includes canceling unpaid interest for those who meet the income threshold. It will also eliminate up to $20,000 in unpaid interest for everyone. It also eliminates debt for people with loans that are over 20 years old or are experiencing financial hardship.
“It’s one of the better things that has come out of this administration. I don’t think any other president has either canceled student debt or has made such a concerted effort to do so. I think it’s pretty good for helping people who want to go to college. We’re going to college soon, and one of the main points for going to UCs is that they are cheaper so we’ll be stuck with less debt,” said Mike Liu (‘25).
Biden has previously made an attempt to help relieve student loans, but the Supreme Court struck down his initial proposal as an overstep in authority. There are still some potential legal challenges with the new proposal as it relies on vague guidelines of the executive’s power without clear congressional authorization.
“It’s a decent plan, but I do have my critiques on how he’s going to go and accomplish this. Things like where he’s getting the funding, if he’s cutting funding to make this work, and generally how he’s going to get this passed, since he’s really in office for a couple more months before he goes for a re-election,” said Aditya Mamareddy (‘24).
Impact on the 2024 Election
Trump and opponents of the bill have criticized it as unfair to those who’ve already paid off their debt. Other conservative politicians have emphasized that students should be able to pay for their education with the career and degree they receive, discouraging people from taking majors that might not make enough money.
“In reality, I feel like it’s kind of whatever a student wants to study because you don’t really know if a certain degree will pay off in the future. It’s hard to tell,” said Mamareddy.
Humanity majors are experiencing more student debt than their STEM related counterparts, which is leading students to pursue something more likely to a return on their investment. To minimize debt, students often choose their state schools to get a lower in-state tuition rate.
“This will probably open up more out-of-state options, not for me, but for other people. One of the major counterpoints against out-of-state options is the much higher cost. I don’t think cost alone will be changing where I go to school,” said Liu.
Recent pollings are showing that Biden is losing the favor of young people, despite historical trends of youth leaning towards the left.
“This will probably help Biden’s declining reputation. From what I know, he’s lagging behind Trump in Gen Z because of his handling of the war in Gaza. They’ve been voting ‘uncommitted’ in several states like Michigan which could greatly hurt Biden’s chances of getting re-elected,” said Liu.
