Just 24 hours after the news broke, President Biden died. seriously considering Organisers mobilized to cancel student loans worth tens and thousands of dollars.
Students from the Washington, D.C. area joined advocates from Move On, the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP), and other groups in chants of “cancel student debt” at a rally in front of the White House on April 27.
An all-star cast including Democratic members of Congress attended the rally to urge the Biden administration towards action on student debt. over $1.7 trillion.
“The U.S. Department of Education currently holds so much student loan debt that it’s now the nation’s largest consumer bank,” said Rep. Rashida Tlaib (D-MI). “That’s ridiculous.”
“At this point you’re not even paying off your loan, you are paying off the interest on that loan,” Tlaib added. “The system is broken.”
The Trump administration stopped student loan payments at the beginning of the pandemic in 2020. The pause was extended six times since then, allowing debtors access to scarce funds to pay down their debts rather than using them to pay off student loans. Monthly student loan payments were $460 before the pause.
It is not enough to delay these payments.
“We have 45 million people in this country who are shackled with student debt,” said. Rep. Ihan Omar (D-MN). “You have to realize, that’s 45 million people who are putting off the opportunity to start that business they want to start. 45 million people are putting off starting a family. That is 45 million people who go to sleep every night, wake up every morning, stressed with the anxiety of having that massive student debt holding them back.”
“We have sold the idea that education is the great equalizer and in order for them to get ahead, that requires higher education,” Omar added. “But we have not created the opportunity and resources for them to do that.”
Particularly Black students are burdened with student loan debt. Black students are required to borrow more money to complete college than their White counterparts. A National Center for Education Statistics study reveals that Black Bachelor’s degree graduates have 13 percent more student debt and Black Associate’s degree graduates have 26 percent more than White graduates with those degrees.
Black students not only take out more loans out of necessity but also keep them with them for longer periods than their White counterparts. Brandeis University found that Black and White students who enrolled in college in 1995 borrowed roughly the same amount of student loans: $19 500 for Black students and $16,300 respectively for White students. Twenty years later, Black graduates could only pay down 5% of the total amount owed while White graduates were able, on average, to pay off 94% of the amounts owed.
If the Biden administration decides to cancel up to $50,000 in federal student loan debts — as Sen. Elizabeth Warren (D-MA) has proposed — it would immediately increase the wealth of Black Americans by 40 percent, according to Roosevelt Institute analysis.
Not only would it address long-standing racial inequality but it would also address the widening wealth disparity between the top 1% and the rest of America.
“You have billionaires in this country who in a given year are not paying a nickel in federal income taxes,” said Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-VT). “You likely pay an effective tax rate higher than some of the richest people in the country […]So, I think we can bail out banks that have destroyed the economy due to their illegal activities. We can cancel all student debt.”
Sanders suggested a tax on Wall Street speculation to raise revenue to offset student loan debt cancellation. The tax, also known by the financial transaction tax, is expected to generate approximately $2.5 billion annually. up to $2.4 trillionOver the past 10 years, public revenue has been derived from wealthy investors.
While Biden has indicated its interest in canceling student loan debt, it has not committed to $50,000 for each borrower — an amount that many progressive activists see as the minimum — and will continue to pressure the administration to do more. “We agree that we shouldn’t cancel $50,000 in student loan debt,” saidThe NAACP issued a statement. “We should cancel all of it. $50,000 was just the bottom line.”
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