Almost half of U.S. governors signed a letter to Joe Biden asking him to withdraw his student loan forgiveness plan because it would “force American taxpayers to pay off the student loan debt of an elite few.”
The plan calls for $10,000 in student loans — $20,000 for Pell grant recipients — to be forgiven for debtors who make less than $125,000 a year. Twenty-two governors — all Republicans — signed the letter to the president.
Biden’s plan is unfair on several levels, the governors point out.
“College may not be the right decision for every American, but for the students who took out loans, it was their decision: able adults and willing borrowers who knowingly agreed to the terms of the loan and consented to taking on debt in exchange for taking classes,” the letter states. “A high-cost degree is not the key to unlocking the American Dream—hard work and personal responsibility is.”
It further argues that it is unfair to those who previously already paid off their student loans.
It’s what responsible lawmakers used to call a “moral hazard.” During the bank bailouts of the 2007-08 recession, White House and Federal Reserve officials were torn between saving some of the biggest banks on Wall Street and letting them fail. The feeling was that dumping tens of billions of dollars in taxpayer money into the coffers of private companies would set a bad precedent, regardless of the effect on the economy.
The resulting Emergency Economic Stabilization Act of 2008 pumped $700 billion into private sector companies. Eventually, the money was repaid, but Congress didn’t know that would be the case when they passed the measure in October of 2008.
Now, we’re faced with a simple political expedient: student loan holders are underwater, and rather than finding a solution, the government is just going to wave a magic wand and make the debt disappear.
What’s truly imperative is that unless critical reforms are made to the student loan system, America is going to be right back to where we are now in about a decade.
The governors also expressed concern that the forgiveness plan could encourage higher education institutions to drive up their costs, and therefore worsen inflation.
“Rather than addressing the rising cost of tuition for higher education or working to lower interest rates for student loans, your plan kicks the can down the road and makes today’s problems worse for tomorrow’s students.”
Related: Biden’s Student Loan Giveaway Will Allow Colleges to Jack Up Tuition Costs
There is zero incentive for colleges and universities to control costs. For example, does a school really need 163 diversity, equity, and inclusion officers to function?
According to a Heritage Foundation study of DEI bureaucracies in higher education, the University of Michigan employed 163 individuals working on DEI initiatives as of 2021, making it the largest staff at a public university involved with such actions.
Robert Sellers, Michigan’s vice provost for equity and inclusion and chief diversity officer until this year, was also the highest-paid DEI official from the top 15 colleges on their list. Sellers took in $431,000 annually, disclosures show.
And we wonder why student loan debt is so high and why the cost of college continues to skyrocket.
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