After the Biden Administration cancelled $415 Million of student debt for victims at for-profit colleges, Senator Bernie Sanders (I-Vermont), called to cancel all student debt. This would be a move that could alleviate tens of thousands of borrowers from what is often a massive financial burden.
On Wednesday, the Education Department announcedIt was canceling student debts for students misled by for profit colleges like DeVry University. The agency has been fielding complaints from borrowers and has found that the institution made “widespread substantial misrepresentations about its job placement rates.”
Advocates and legislators praised the decision, but noted that more needs to be done if the administration wants to address the student loan crisis.
“Good,” Sanders wrote on Twitter. “Now cancel the remaining $1,883,214,046,704 for 44,984,000 other Americans who are still drowning in student debt.”
It has taken years to get student loans for victims of for profit colleges canceled. This was during the Trump administration. judges orderedEducation Department to cancel student loans for students who have been victims of for-profit colleges. But Betsy DeVos, ex-Education Secretary, said that refused to do so.
The agency announced the cancellation in a press release this week. It stated that it had so far canceled approximately $2 billion for 107,000 borrowers who were eligible under the program. Joe Biden has canceled all of the above. over $13 billionStudent loans available as of January
Sanders pointed out that this amount is small compared to the student debt currently held by borrowers across America.
Federal Reserve data show that borrowers have increased in number over the past year. held a collectiveAs of December, student loan debt was at an all-time high of $1.75 trillion. Other estimates from the Student Debt Crisis CenterYou can put the amount at around $1.88 trillion on Friday.
Either way, the number is astronomically high compared to the amount that Biden has canceled so far – $13 billion is less than 1 percent of the total amount of student debt weighing on borrowers. It’s also a far cry from the up to $10,000 of debt that the president promised to cancel for every borrower while on the campaign trail.
Biden has been slowing down on the issue student debt, despite the fact that progressive and Democratic lawmakers have been pushing him for action on the matter for more than a decade. Biden has publicly acknowledged that he has. Avoided questionsConcerning his inability to cancel any debts so far, the White House stated that it is investigating After the pandemic-related repayment freeze, student loans can be refinanced a “high priority.”
The White House’s sluggishness on the issue and its Obfuscation for a purpose of Biden’s legal authority to cancel student loans have led debt advocates to cast doubt on whether or not Biden actually wants to address the crisis, despite its huge impact on the economy.
Debt activists Plan a day of actionIn April, Biden was asked to cancel student debt. Loan payments are due to resume in May. a survey last year foundIt would cause financial distress for thousands, perhaps millions, of borrowers.
Economic issues aside, proposals to cancel student debt are popular among voters – which is critical as the country approaches midterm elections that could lead to Democrats losing control of Congress. Recent polling from Data for Progress foundThe federal government should eliminate student loans for borrowers according to a majority of voters (63%) and a majority of Democrats (88%) agreeing with this view.
In an interview this week, Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (D-New York) pointed out that canceling debt would be a “keystone action” for Biden to take ahead of the election this fall, especially as the rest of Democrats’ agenda is stalled in the Senate thanks to conservative Democrats.
