Biden to tackle student loan crisis by canceling $10,000 in debt ‘per borrower’: report

When members of Generation Z are applying to colleges — or when Millennials are paying down their student loan debt — it serves as a reminder of how much the cost of college tuition has soared since the 1960s and 1970s. Millennials and Zoomers are facing much worse student loan debt than what Baby Boomers were facing when they graduated from college 45, 50 or 55 years ago.

Student loan debt is a problem that the Biden Administration has been addressing, and according to three Washington Post sources, the Administration plans to cancel $10,000 in student debt for each borrower.

Washington Post journalists Tyler Pager, Danielle Douglas-Gabriel and Jeff Stein report that the sources told that Post that President Joe Biden “hoped to make the announcement as soon as” the May 28/May 29 weekend “at the University of Delaware commencement” — although that “timing has changed” because of the mass shooting that occurred at Robb Elementary School in Uvalde, Texas on May 24. That day, a gunman killed 19 students along with two teachers.

According to Pager, Douglas-Gabriel and Stein, “The White House’s latest plans called for limiting debt forgiveness to Americans who earned less than $150,000 in the previous year, or less than $300,000 for married couples filing jointly, two of the people said. It was unclear whether the (Biden) Administration will simultaneously require interest and payments to resume at the end of August, when the current pause is scheduled to lapse.”

The Post reporters note that their three sources, all of whom spoke on condition of anonymity, “cautioned that some details of these plans could change before the White House makes the decision official.”

“The likely decision follows months of uncertainty over the fate of student debt for tens of millions of Americans, with Biden at times sounding skeptical of canceling loans but under pressure from his collapsing approval ratings among young voters ahead of November’s elections,” Pager, Douglas-Gabriel and Stein explain. “The decision will also ignite new fights between Democrats and Republicans over federal spending and could prove to be a defining issue on the campaign trail, as GOP lawmakers have already said the idea amounts to wasteful spending that primarily benefits affluent college-educated professionals.”

The reporters add, however, that on May 26, Biden White House Vedant Petal told the Post, “No decisions have been made yet.”

The Guardian’s Lauren Aratani described the scope of the student loan crisis in an article published on May 26, observing, “America’s students have a debt problem. A big one. More than 45 million Americans — more than the population of California — now owe a collective $1.7tn in student debt.”