Stephanie Samsel
Several weeks after President Biden announced his student loan forgiveness plan, Baltimore college students say they are eager to have their debt lessened but question the plan’s long-term impact.
Loan borrowers making an individual income of less than $125,000 can have between $10,000 and $20,000 of their debt canceled, the U.S. Department of Education reported in August.
TU senior Isabella Baker called the loan forgiveness plan a “band-aid over a bullet wound” of high tuition costs and interest rates.
“I may get at most $10,000 taken off my student loans, but I’m going to grad school,” Baker said. “So that’s gonna be added back…but like that doesn’t solve the actual issue.”
Maryland residents have, on average, the second-highest student debt in the nation, according to a WYPR report in July.
Baker added that current students criticized the relief plan for not forgiving enough debt, whereas older generations say the goal is not fair to those who have already paid off their student loans.
TU alumnus and marketing manager Tyler Williams ’19 also pointed out opposition to the plan’s eligibility requirements in the greater Baltimore community.
“Many of my coworkers, neighbors, and friends are disappointed that the debt relief only supports those who have outstanding student debt,” Williams wrote in an email. “Others who have paid off their debt could still benefit from a stimulus but aren’t eligible.”
This discontent comes after the U.S. Secretary of Education, Miguel Cardona, praised the presidential administration for canceling over $10 billion of student debt.
“Today’s announcement that we’ve surpassed $10 billion in forgiveness for more than 175,000 public servants shows that the Biden-Harris administration’s efforts to cut red tape are turning the Public Service Loan Forgiveness program from a promise broken into a promise kept,” Cardona said in a press release Aug. 23.
TU students are not the only students in Baltimore who are dissatisfied with the president’s loan forgiveness plan.
At Johns Hopkins University and the University of Maryland Baltimore County, some students allegedly believe the plan will have “minimal impact” on them economically, as JHU junior Connor Wang reported in an email.
“Not a lot of people are talking about [the plan],” wrote UMBC junior Florence Akingbehin in an email. “Students still plan on working through their school years just to be able to fend for themselves in case this plan fails.”
Dr. John McTague, a political science professor at TU, wondered whether the loan forgiveness plan is “much different from other aspects of the social welfare state” that people can resent for being expected to “pay for things they don’t use.”
Biden’s loan forgiveness initiative is likely spearheaded by his desire to earn more votes among young people, McTague added in an email. “One of Biden’s biggest liabilities is his lagging support among younger voters, and this seems tailored to attract them to the polls,” McTague said. “The White House is banking on this being a net benefit. We shall see if the gamble pays off.”