Biden administration announces partial student loan forgiveness

[Toni]

Student loan debt is not eliminated, the debt is transfers to taxpayers, like you.

So if a student goes to Harvard and gets loan 'forgiveness' then you the taxpayer is paying for somebody's Ivy League education.

Sounds fair to me.

It is fair considering education is a public good and should be paid for by taxpayers.

 

[lpetrich]

Biden-Harris Administration Announces an Additional $9 Billion in Student Debt Relief | U.S. Department of Education - October 4, 2023

The Biden-Harris administration announced today that an additional 125,000 Americans have been approved for $9 billion in debt relief through fixes the U.S. Department of Education has made to income-driven repayment (IDR) and Public Service Loan Forgiveness (PSLF), and granting automatic relief for borrowers with total and permanent disabilities. Today's announcement brings the total approved debt cancellation by the Biden-Harris Administration to $127 billion for nearly 3.6 million Americans.

Little by little.

 

[TSwizzle]

Why are people that work in the private sector excluded from this "loan forgiveness" malarkey?

 

[TomC]

Why are people that work in the private sector excluded from this "loan forgiveness" malarkey?

Why did I, a gay male non-parent who never attended a public school, have to pay property taxes? The bulk of those tax monies went to the public school system.

Here's why I didn't object.

I want to live in a world of educated people. The earlier the education starts the better. More schooling is better.

I'm also ok with taxpayer funded higher education. Requiring students to take out loans to fund it is the problem.
If we can find funds to support corporate welfare we can Damm well pay off student loans.


Get back to me when the Feds can't afford to give tax breaks and "research funds" to Exxon-Mobil.
Tom

 

[steve_bank]

Student loan debt is not eliminated, the debt is transfers to taxpayers, like you.

So if a student goes to Harvard and gets loan 'forgiveness' then you the taxpayer is paying for somebody's Ivy League education.

Sounds fair to me.

It is fair considering education is a public good and should be paid for by taxpayers.

The idea is you invest in yourself. You take responsibility for your life. Not government.

Public primary education is paid by taxpayers within a school district. That is a public good. Communities mandate all kids get a basic education.

If you go into debt to get a PHD in a field where there are few jobs that pay a living wage like art history taxpayers should pay for that?

.

 

[cycomiko]

Student loan debt is not eliminated, the debt is transfers to taxpayers, like you.

So if a student goes to Harvard and gets loan 'forgiveness' then you the taxpayer is paying for somebody's Ivy League education.

Sounds fair to me.

It is fair considering education is a public good and should be paid for by taxpayers.

The idea is you invest in yourself. You take responsibility for your life. Not government.

Public primary education is paid by taxpayers within a school district. That is a public good. Communities mandate all kids get a basic education.

If you go into debt to get a PHD in a field where there are few jobs that pay a living wage like art history taxpayers should pay for that?

.

what about degrees in social work? do art history majors go on to become museum curators (i honestly don't know)? library science degrees? i personally believe all of those careers benefit society and should be treated as such. whether such fields should require degrees is another debate.

 

[Toni]

Student loan debt is not eliminated, the debt is transfers to taxpayers, like you.

So if a student goes to Harvard and gets loan 'forgiveness' then you the taxpayer is paying for somebody's Ivy League education.

Sounds fair to me.

It is fair considering education is a public good and should be paid for by taxpayers.

The idea is you invest in yourself. You take responsibility for your life. Not government.

Public primary education is paid by taxpayers within a school district. That is a public good. Communities mandate all kids get a basic education.

If you go into debt to get a PHD in a field where there are few jobs that pay a living wage like art history taxpayers should pay for that?

.

Sadly enough, fewer and fewer Americans are earning Ph.D.s in anything, largely because the very high cost of undergraduate education ( something you completely skipped over) and the dearth of funds to support graduate students—vastly different compared with my generation whose assistantships covered tuition and much of the cost of subsidized grad housing and some bare bones food. Oh, and health care. Even with me working full time, we were just scraping by but so we’re all our friends and we informally came together in various co-ops, sharing resources and friendship. For all the monetary stress, it was one of the happiest times in our lives, I think because of the lack of emphasis on stuff and the emphasis on learning and and shared living experiences and community. Sadly, I don’t think that even exists now.

So who will teach our college students? Who will teach our doctors and lawyers and nurses and teachers and engineers and journalists and librarians and social workers and so on?

It appears that these days it is necessary for many if not most students to go into massive debt in order to obtain an undergrad degree, never mind to enter and complete grad school or a professional school.

Have you considered for even a moment what the implications are for our society?

 

[Copernicus]

Student loan debt is not eliminated, the debt is transfers to taxpayers, like you.

So if a student goes to Harvard and gets loan 'forgiveness' then you the taxpayer is paying for somebody's Ivy League education.

Sounds fair to me.

It is fair considering education is a public good and should be paid for by taxpayers.

The idea is you invest in yourself. You take responsibility for your life. Not government.

Public primary education is paid by taxpayers within a school district. That is a public good. Communities mandate all kids get a basic education.

If you go into debt to get a PHD in a field where there are few jobs that pay a living wage like art history taxpayers should pay for that?

.

Sadly enough, fewer and fewer Americans are earning Ph.D.s in anything, largely because the very high cost of undergraduate education ( something you completely skipped over) and the dearth of funds to support graduate students—vastly different compared with my generation whose assistantships covered tuition and much of the cost of subsidized grad housing and some bare bones food. Oh, and health care. Even with me working full time, we were just scraping by but so we’re all our friends and we informally came together in various co-ops, sharing resources and friendship. For all the monetary stress, it was one of the happiest times in our lives, I think because of the lack of emphasis on stuff and the emphasis on learning and and shared living experiences and community. Sadly, I don’t think that even exists now.

So who will teach our college students? Who will yea h our doctors and lawyers and nurses and teachers and engineers and journalists and librarians and social workers and so on?

It appears that these days it is necessary for many if not most students to go into massive debt in order to obtain an undergrad degree, never mind to enter and complete grad school or a professional school.

Have you considered for even a moment what the implications are for our society?

I can vouch for what Toni is saying here. I had a scholarship and student loans to help with my undergraduate education, which was only affordable because I went to a state university (Ohio State). I could not have afforded an Ivy League school, so I didn't bother applying to any. My grades were so good that I had a full NDEA (National Defense Education Act) Title IV Fellowship for my graduate career. I quit that after three years, because I wanted to teach undergraduate courses while taking graduate courses, and the fellowship wouldn't allow me to work while taking classes. So I took out another student loan and earned a small salary teaching undergraduate courses while finishing my PhD. Then I got a job teaching at an Ivy League school (Columbia University). Half of my student loan was forgiven, because I embarked on a multiyear teaching career, and the interest rate on the loan was a nominal 3%--affordable on a professor's salary. That kind of opportunity is very rare in the 21st century US. We simply do not value education like we used to, although we pay a lot of lip service to it, and I find that very sad.

 

[Toni]

Student loan debt is not eliminated, the debt is transfers to taxpayers, like you.

So if a student goes to Harvard and gets loan 'forgiveness' then you the taxpayer is paying for somebody's Ivy League education.

Sounds fair to me.

It is fair considering education is a public good and should be paid for by taxpayers.

The idea is you invest in yourself. You take responsibility for your life. Not government.

Public primary education is paid by taxpayers within a school district. That is a public good. Communities mandate all kids get a basic education.

If you go into debt to get a PHD in a field where there are few jobs that pay a living wage like art history taxpayers should pay for that?

.

Sadly enough, fewer and fewer Americans are earning Ph.D.s in anything, largely because the very high cost of undergraduate education ( something you completely skipped over) and the dearth of funds to support graduate students—vastly different compared with my generation whose assistantships covered tuition and much of the cost of subsidized grad housing and some bare bones food. Oh, and health care. Even with me working full time, we were just scraping by but so we’re all our friends and we informally came together in various co-ops, sharing resources and friendship. For all the monetary stress, it was one of the happiest times in our lives, I think because of the lack of emphasis on stuff and the emphasis on learning and and shared living experiences and community. Sadly, I don’t think that even exists now.

So who will teach our college students? Who will yea h our doctors and lawyers and nurses and teachers and engineers and journalists and librarians and social workers and so on?

It appears that these days it is necessary for many if not most students to go into massive debt in order to obtain an undergrad degree, never mind to enter and complete grad school or a professional school.

Have you considered for even a moment what the implications are for our society?

I can vouch for what Toni is saying here. I had a scholarship and student loans to help with my undergraduate education, which was only affordable because I went to a state university (Ohio State). I could not have afforded an Ivy League school, so I didn't bother applying to any. My grades were so good that I had a full NDEA (National Defense Education Act) Title IV Fellowship for my graduate career. I quit that after three years, because I wanted to teach undergraduate courses while taking graduate courses, and the fellowship wouldn't allow me to work while taking classes. So I took out another student loan and earned a small salary teaching undergraduate courses while finishing my PhD. Then I got a job teaching at an Ivy League school (Columbia University). Half of my student loan was forgiven, because I embarked on a multiyear teaching career, and the interest rate on the loan was a nominal 3%--affordable on a professor's salary. That kind of opportunity is very rare in the 21st century US. We simply do not value education like we used to, although we pay a lot of lip service to it, and I find that very sad.

I think that it is partly a deliberate strategy: devaluing education creates a population that is easy to manipulate and control.

 

[Copernicus]

I think that it is partly a deliberate strategy: devaluing education creates a population that is easy to manipulate and control.

I don't think that the strategy is to create a population that is easy to control. Rather, I think it is about pursuing an economic ideology--that everything should be the responsibility of the individual to pay as you go. No handouts. Rugged individualism. Small government. No socialism.

Senator Fulbright wrote about the struggle they had in getting the National Defense Education Act passed in 1958. They had to add the word "Defense" to the title in order to get enough votes for passage. That made it sound like a national security issue, and there was considerable pushback from Republicans over the idea of giving students a "free ride" gift from taxpayers. Nowadays, there is far less incentive to become a teacher than there used to be, and the schools seem not to be able to offer the same quality of education that they used to. I still marvel at the fact that young clerks in stores pull out their phones to do math--even when it is as simple as division by 10, where you just move a decimal point.

 

[ZiprHead]

Student loan debt is not eliminated, the debt is transfers to taxpayers, like you.

So if a student goes to Harvard and gets loan 'forgiveness' then you the taxpayer is paying for somebody's Ivy League education.

Sounds fair to me.

It is fair considering education is a public good and should be paid for by taxpayers.

The idea is you invest in yourself. You take responsibility for your life. Not government.

Public primary education is paid by taxpayers within a school district. That is a public good. Communities mandate all kids get a basic education.

If you go into debt to get a PHD in a field where there are few jobs that pay a living wage like art history taxpayers should pay for that?

.

Elementary education was thought to be essential so it was paid for by tax payers. Secondary education then became an essential part of society so taxpayers paid for it. Now post high school education is deemed necessary but you don't want to help pay for it.

 

[ZiprHead]

(Ohio State).

From a Michigander.

 

[Copernicus]

(Ohio State).

From a Michigander.

I'll have you know that I was born in Detroit and spent the first eight years of my life there. During my first Ohio State-U Michigan game, I sat in the bleachers with a Wolverine pennant and cheered for the other side. (Someone grabbed my pennant and broke it.) I only became an OSU fan after the pod was opened.

 

[Politesse]

Why are people that work in the private sector excluded from this "loan forgiveness" malarkey?

Because they've done nothing to earn it, duh.