Federal Student Loan Forgiveness
Lota Agbim
On October 17, 2022, President Joe Biden announced the opening of the Student Loan Forgiveness application. Biden first spoke of this student loan relief program back in August, predicting that it would cost the government about $379 billion. Though students are certainly impacted by the program, who else will it affect and what could it mean for the nation as a whole?
On November 14, a federal appeals court temporarily blocked Biden’s loan forgiveness program, which is designed to erase roughly $10,000 to $20,000 of student loan debt per applicant. The United States Government is currently $30 trillion in debt, so adding another $400 billion would only increase how much debt we already owe by about 1.3%.
Although more debt is never a good thing, I think the student loan forgiveness program would greatly benefit a tremendous number of people in the US given that student loan debt in the United States is currently $1.75 trillion. With hundreds of thousands of students enrolling in colleges around the United States each year, this student loan debt will only increase. On average, each college student borrowing money is taking out roughly $29,000. However, astronomically high prices were not always the norm. Since 1963, college tuition prices have risen 747.8%—a huge increase in how much people pay for higher education. I believe many Americans would greatly benefit from this program because it would allow people to get higher education for a much lower price.
Given the burden that student loan debt creates, student loan forgiveness would be a great stress reliever for people who may not have been able to afford to pay for their higher education all at once. The program will lift a huge weight off the shoulders of those who have been using their hard-earned income to pay off student loans. However, not everyone that attends college has to take on such debt.
In countries around the world like Spain, France, and Kenya, college is free or costs very little. People aren’t forced to take on hundreds of thousands of dollars in debt just to become more knowledgeable. For example, in France, tuition fees total to about $200 a year for European students and $3,000 a year for international students. Although college in France is not free, the tuition fees are significantly lower than tuition fees charged by universities in the United States.
In the United States, it has been the “norm” for many years for people to pursue higher education, as many jobs do require college degrees. I believe that President Biden’s attempt to reduce student loan debt is a step in the right direction for countless people. For many low to middle-class families, college isn’t easily attainable—most people can’t afford it!
On the other hand, forgiving student loans could be detrimental to our economy. Since it would cost the government copious amounts of money to support the forgiveness program, some people may see it as unhelpful to our economy. The funding has to come from somewhere and that very well may show up in the taxes that we pay to our government. Many college graduates have been wondering if their student loans would be forgiven even if they have since moved on to their various career paths since taking out the loans. However, if every living college graduate in the United States received loan forgiveness, we would be in so much more debt than we are already in.
A lot of private loan companies would also be negatively affected by this program should it come to fruition. They would lose money from their customers since the individuals who originally took out the loan would no longer be responsible for it. All in all, the loan forgiveness program would be very beneficial for most Americans since many people are up to their shoulders in student loan debt. The program would make higher education more affordable and not as much of a burden on the average American household.
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