Why you shouldn't scoff at Biden debt relief just because you paid yours off

Charisse Jones, USA TODAY
7 min read
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Since President Joe Biden announced his plan for student loan forgiveness, the debate on and offline has been fierce.

For every borrower exhaling now that at least $10,000 will be erased from their federal student loan burden, there is someone else complaining that they don't want their tax dollars paying off other people's debt, or that they worked hard to pay off their loans so everyone else should have to as well.

"This is what paid for most of my college,'' @patriotmimzy wrote in a tweet, noting her portrait in uniform. "The rest was paid by loans, which I paid back in full. Every last cent. Student loan 'forgiveness' pisses me off beyond belief.''

If you made your last student loan payment before Biden's reprieve, your disappointment is justified. If you are worried that inflation could rise because up to 43 million borrowers may soon have extra money in their pockets, that's understandable.

But there would never be progress on any societal challenge or injustice if the litmus test was that the solution must benefit everyone, or that it shouldn't be done because others didn't have the same opportunity.

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Should women not have been given the right to vote because their grandmothers were not able to legally cast a ballot and had to walk through the world without the franchise?

Should social security have been a non-starter because generations of senior citizens had to survive any way they could before its implementation?

Before the Affordable Care Act became law in 2010, Americans with medical challenges ranging from hypertension to cancer could be denied coverage by insurers because of their "preexisting conditions.''

The ACA changed that. Should that provision have been scrapped because before that safety net was in place, others had to suffer through an untreated illness or endure financial ruin?

Student loan debt holders protest outside the White House staff entrance on July 27 in Washington, D.C.
Student loan debt holders protest outside the White House staff entrance on July 27 in Washington, D.C.

No doubt there are likely millions of Americans who don't have federal student loan debt but could still use a $10,000 break.

But what’s also true is that a nation can’t prosper without foresight. It can't survive without empathy. And it can't move toward economic equity without taking the first step. That's what student debt relief is, a single – perhaps tenuous – step, but one that can ignite a sure-footed movement toward better economic circumstances for all.

Paycheck Protection Program loan forgiveness vs. student debt relief

The outcry against programs that benefit some and not all is often loudest when it's the working and middle class getting the break as opposed to the powerful and the wealthy.

Biden acknowledged that disparity on Wednesday when after his debt relief announcement, he was asked by a reporter if the plan was unfair to people who'd paid their student loans or who had not taken them out in the first place.

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"Is it fair to people who do not own multibullion dollar businesses, if, to see one of these guys getting all the tax breaks?'' he asked. "Is that fair?''

Then there are the mostly Republican politicians who received tens or even hundreds of thousands of dollars in federal Paycheck Protection Program loans during the COVID-19 health crisis but are angry that a person who racked up debt seeking a higher education might get the smallest bit of relief.

"As a blue-collar kid who worked his way through college, I know firsthand the sacrifices people make to receive an education,'' Rep. Vern Buchanan, R-Fla., wrote in a tweet. "Biden's reckless, unilateral student loan giveaway is unfair to the 87 percent of Americans without student loan debt and those who played by the rules.''

That's rich.

According to the White House Twitter account, which also called out Marjorie Taylor Greene, Matt Gaetz and more of the congressman's peers, Buchanan had more than $2.3 million in Paycheck Protection Program loans forgiven.

Many – maybe most – of the people who received Paycheck Protection Program loans desperately needed it. Some who got the funds likely could have been fine without it. And others, reaching for a lifeline, got little to no financial assistance. But whatever the program's shortcomings, it was essential in the midst of a once-in-a-century pandemic that virtually shut down the economy.

Student loan debt is a different challenge, but it is also an emergency.

Roughly 44 million Americans owe a cumulative $1.7 trillion in student debt,

The average annual tuition rate is equal to almost a third of the average American's salary, and the average cost of an undergraduate degree in the U.S., including room and board and fees, soared 169%, from $9,307 to $25,004, between 1980 and 2019, according to the Georgetown University Center's analysis of data from the U.S. Department of Education.

Students are working, heading to school overseas, or joining the military. Parents are setting money aside in 529 accounts, considering renting out rooms, or relocating so their kids can qualify for in-state tuition. And still, that's not always enough to cover the cost of college and to avoid taking out loans.

The financial burden falls most heavily on Black Americans who due to historic and continuing discrimination have been hindered in building generational wealth and on average have almost twice as much student loan debt as their white peers.

Biden's cancelation of $10,000 in student loan debt for millions of borrowers and $20,000 for many Pell Grant recipients doesn't go far enough to close the racial wealth gap, many advocates say. But it might narrow it down a little.

Demonstrators call for the cancellation of student loan debt outside the U.S. Department of Education on April 4. The demonstration was organized by the Debt Collective, a group that bought and discharged student debt at Bennett College, an all-women's school.
Demonstrators call for the cancellation of student loan debt outside the U.S. Department of Education on April 4. The demonstration was organized by the Debt Collective, a group that bought and discharged student debt at Bennett College, an all-women's school.

More broadly, when we as a nation are against relief that doesn't directly benefit each of us individually, it keeps our society from addressing a host of injustices, whether that's ensuring every American has access to affordable health care, or offering assistance to the nearly 14 million households that were food insecure at some time in 2020, the most recent year available, in the wealthiest nation on Earth.

Some say we may be entering a financially perilous cycle. That the pressure will build for more rounds of relief as another group of borrowers begins its higher education journey.

They're probably right, but that's not a bad thing. The net needs to be cast wider to help those also buckling under the weight of private school loans.

Hopefully, future actions will help rein in college tuition, create more debt-free options, and bolster alternatives that allow people to bypass college altogether yet still have long-term, good-paying careers.

For now, millions of Americans currently hobbled by student loan debt may have a chance to build their savings, a fresh opportunity to buy a home, and a little breathing room to comfortably start a family.

More young people may be able to pursue the career they want as opposed to taking the job they need to pare their student loan burden.

That's what getting rid of $10,000 in debt can do. And that's worth a whole lot.

Follow Charisse Jones on Twitter @charissejones

This article originally appeared on USA TODAY: Is Biden student loan forgiveness unfair? No, it's a vital first step.

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