In case you missed it, Joe Biden has decided not to extend student loan debt relief:
#BREAKING: Biden won’t extend student loan relief https://t.co/GQFoCO0d9T pic.twitter.com/92Pm7J5JFI
— Forbes (@Forbes) December 13, 2021
That’s a pretty serious blow to progressives like Rep. Pramila Jayapal:
When student loan payments restart in February, 75% of borrowers say their finances will take a direct hit.
Here’s how we tackle this crisis:
1️⃣ Extend the payment pause
2️⃣ Cancel up to $50,000 in student debt per borrower@POTUS has the power to do this and he must use it.— Pramila Jayapal (@PramilaJayapal) December 14, 2021
Perhaps Rep. Jayapal and her likeminded friends should consider the possibility that the federal government endlessly deferring student loan payments, if not outright canceling them, may not be the best solution to the student loan debt problem.
Perhaps Rep. Jayapal and her likeminded friends should listen to Iowahawk, who, unlike most progressives, has actually taken the time to examine the issue closely and thoughtfully:
If someone can't pay their student loan debt, forgive it and bill to their college for the balancehttps://t.co/9PT2bQ2z2A
— David Burge (@iowahawkblog) December 14, 2021
Also, if someone graduates from a college and can't find a job in their major after 5 years, they should be able to return their diploma for a full refund
— David Burge (@iowahawkblog) December 14, 2021
How is it that when we talk about college debt we treat college pricing as some sort of uncontrollable natural phenomenonhttps://t.co/xhnedTdXKz
— David Burge (@iowahawkblog) December 14, 2021
Fact is nothing – not health care, not housing – has inflated more than the cost of college over the last 20 years, and the chief culprit in this is easy student lending. It finances layers and layers of useless administration, luxury dorms, etc creating a vicious circle.
— David Burge (@iowahawkblog) December 14, 2021
There are likely colleges / fields of study whose graduates pay back their loans on schedule. And okay, fine, no problem.
But there are some fly-by-night diploma mills who are basically student loan kiting operations. Some private (notoriously cosmetology schools), some public.
— David Burge (@iowahawkblog) December 14, 2021
If X majors from the University of Y have a 99.5% student loan payback rate, I will happily acknowledge they're getting their money's worth and we should even expand future loans for that program.
But if W majors at Z College have a 50% payment default rate, we have a problem.
— David Burge (@iowahawkblog) December 14, 2021
I suspect when it comes to student loans that there's an 80/20 rule at work, with 80% of the bad debt coming out of 20% of colleges and/or fields of study. Either those places are charging too much, or providing too little value to students.
— David Burge (@iowahawkblog) December 14, 2021
A first step to addressing the student loan crisis (as it were) should be an audit to identify the worst institutional culprits so we can put them on a no-loan list. I don't care if they're accredited, they shouldn't be.
— David Burge (@iowahawkblog) December 14, 2021
And if that's too complicated, just require the college to be co-signer on all their students' loans.
— David Burge (@iowahawkblog) December 14, 2021
If Iowahawk weren’t so disgusted with government and politicians, we’d suggest he go into politics. But he probably wouldn’t last anyway … he makes way too much sense.
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