There’s no such thing as a perfect solution to the student debt problem confronting tens of millions of Americans. President Joe Biden’s partial solution is guaranteed to make the left unhappy for not going far enough and to be lambasted by the right for being too generous and moving the goalposts on financial responsibility.
This Editorial Board is not thrilled with the message loan forgiveness sends to people who make financial promises they can’t keep, or about the message it sends to people who worked hard, struggled to make ends meet and ultimately paid off their loans without asking for forgiveness. The effect of Biden’s plan, paying $10,000 to $20,000 to cover existing qualified debts, is to shoulder taxpayers with the financial burden of student debtors who, for whatever reason, can’t handle the debt burden by themselves. At best, Biden’s plan is a stopgap measure. Skyrocketing tuition costs mean student debt burdens are only going to grow worse in the future.
That said, the fact that Black student debtors have the highest average amount of outstanding debt should give skeptics pause for reflection. Black borrowers owe an average of around $52,000 on their federal student loans for bachelor’s degrees, and 50% report having a debt burden that exceeds their net worth, according to the Education Data Initiative.
