Periscope
6 NEWSWEEK.COM
Canceling all student
debt would provide an
economic boost of up to
$108 billion a year and
create millions of jobs.
THE DEBATEThere’s an abundance of research
showing how student loans are sti-fling a generation and hurting econ-
omy writ large. It hampers home
ownership and dampens entrepre-neurialism. Cancelling all student
debt would provide an economic
boost of up to $108 billion a year
and create millions of jobs. It makes
sense: Monthly debt payments would
be freed up to be spent on other
things. Rather than enriching a small
handful of student loan servicing
corporations, money would be spent
on daily needs, from rent to grocer-
ies to supporting the small businessesnegatively affected by COVID.
The stories on the Biden Jubilee100 website make this palpable. They
are a very diverse group, in terms of
age, race and geography. They pur-
sued a variety of careers, including
health care, teaching and joining the
clergy. Some took out loans for their
children so they could go to college.What they have in common is that
they are unable to pay for housing,
health care or save for retirement
because of their student debt. The
pandemic has, of course, made their
economic struggles even more dire.
No wonder canceling student
debt is popular across the political
spectrum. A majority of Americans
support student debt cancelation,
including those who have no stu-
dent debt or have already paid off
their student loans. Nearly one in
five Trump voters said they would
consider voting for a Democrat if theDemocrats canceled all student debt.
If Democrats want to hold on to Con-
gress in 2022, or the White House in2024, President Biden should cancel
student debt now. Doing so would
help forge the unity Joe Biden so
highly prizes.
Student debt causes widespread
harm, but it’s important to note it
impacts the most vulnerable borrow-
ers hardest. Black women, for exam-
ple, are the most burdened by student
debt, and it’s easy to understand why.
They come from families that have
less intergenerational wealth, which
means they have to take out loans
to attend school. Then, because of
wage inequities, they have a harder
time making monthly payments. On
average, Black students graduate with
$7,400 more debt than white students.
This gap soon becomes a canyon. A
2019 study reported that 20 years
after starting college, the typical white
student still owes 6 percent of their
cumulative debt, or around $1,000,while the typical Black borrower owes
95 percent, or around $18,500.
Or consider seniors, the fast-
est-growing group of student debtors.
Some 37 percent of seniors with stu-
dent loans are in default. The number
of Social Security recipients 65 and
older who had their benefits seized
due to defaulted federal student loans
increased by more than 500 percent
between 2002 and 2015. That means
less money for essentials like rent,
food and medicine for the elderly.
As one of her last acts as Donald
Trump’s Secretary of Education,
Betsy DeVos wrote a public farewell
letter blasting student debt relief as
“regressive,” claiming it would reward
the wealthy. It was a strange message
from a billionaire known for enact-
ing policies that favor the privileged.
But other well-meaning people have
voiced similar concerns. Wouldn’t
canceling student debt just benefit the
rich and highly educated?
The reality is, student debt is by
definition regressive. The poorer
you are, the more likely you are to
be forced into debt to get an educa-
tion. The children of millionaires and
billionaires don’t have any studentANNAM2 N(<M
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25K^TIM(SʔB/^22 MB(5 *ʔ*(TT<BUT HOW EXACTLY? President Biden
campaigned last year on a promise
to ease the burden on Americans
carrying heavy student loan debt.