President Joe Biden’s plans to deliver widespread student debt relief were dealt a serious blow last year when the Supreme Court struck down his one-time student loan forgiveness program. But he has still managed to cancel more federal student loan debt than any other president.

TLDR: Totalling roughly $144 billion for about 4 million borrows.

Article is from March 29th, 2024

  • jordanlund@lemmy.worldM
    177·
    3 months ago

    The problem is those aren’t real numbers.

    For example:

    You can get your debt cancelled if:

    1. You’ve made payments for more than 10 years. AND:

    2. You borrowed less than $12,000.

    https://www.whitehouse.gov/briefing-room/statements-releases/2024/02/21/fact-sheet-president-biden-cancels-student-debt-for-more-than-150000-student-loan-borrowers-ahead-of-schedule

    So, first, who the hell takes out less than $12,000 in student loans?

    Second, of those who took out less than $12,000, who is still paying a significant amount after 10 years?

    Oh, you only took out $8,000? Good for you… Oh, but it was 6 years ago? Sorry, come back in 4 years.

    So they can say “Oh, we cancelled xx$ in student debt.” But the reality is, they are doing it in a way that nobody can actually USE.

    • givesomefucks@lemmy.world
      English
      92·
      3 months ago

      Theyre canceling interest…

      Like you said, if they borrowed that little and paid back so long. There’s no way they haven’t paid the original loan back.

      I feel like being honest about that, wouldn’t make Biden look as good, but will make more people support it.

      Limit the amount of interest, say 50% of loan amount, after that the balance never increases and principle just goes down.

      If you borrowed 12k and have paid over 18k, you’re done.

      The interest is what’s killing people, not the principals.

      • jordanlund@lemmy.worldM
        6·
        3 months ago

        When my kid was getting ready to go to college, we went to all the FAFSA seminars and filled out all the forms and what not.

        He got accepted by his top three schools, UC Davis, Lewis and Clark, and the University of Oregon Honors College.

        Each one of them came back and told us the same thing…

        “Well, with student assistance, scholarships, and so on, we think you should take out parental plus loans of $56,000 a year.”

        And my reaction was:

        a) That’s oddly specific.

        Followed by:

        b) Wow, what are the chances that one out of state school and two in-state schools all commonly decided on the same oddly specific number?

        Why it’s almost like it’s about “How much can we milk them for?” instead of “Here’s how much college costs.”

        So we said “fuck that noise” and enrolled him as a normal student at the University of Oregon.

        Tuition was $10,000 a year, he had a scholarship that paid $5,000, I ran the other $5,000 through my Amazon card for points, gave him a 2nd card for expenses and rent, and 4 years later he had a degree and 0 debt.

        He’s now a data scientist in the AI field and paid me back in cash. LOL.

        But I could see OTHER parents going “Well, three schools all told us $56,000 a year, I guess that’s just what school costs now…”

        • laurelraven@lemmy.blahaj.zone
          3·
          3 months ago

          Or see that and think “they’ll have better opportunities going to a better university” when for the most part people don’t really care where you got the degree, just that you did, it’s vaguely relevant, and accredited

          If you can do that for a fifth the cost and no outstanding debt, seems foolish to pay what the big unis are commanding

          Also, congrats to your kid, that’s a great field to be in right now

    • Krauerking@lemy.lol
      5·
      3 months ago

      They are using a way that should have already been done since those were the rules we agreed to but haven’t followed for the last couple decades.

      These are basically fake loans that should be a sign of a terrifying bubble about to burst except somebody made it impossible to ever get your schooling loans removed no matter how much you got scammed or should have it paid down by now.

      It’s almost like fixing a whoopsie of loophole that let even more people get fucked over against the agreed on societal backstops in the search for more money except it’s still not even fixed.

    • Wrench@lemmy.world
      4·
      3 months ago

      That’s a gross misrepresentation.

      My wife’s 6 figure loan was forgiven because she had been paying over 20 years, but had fell victim to those predatory student loan refinancing companies that claimed to have put her into the correct program for 20 year forgiveness, but hadn’t. She only found out a few years ago, and the 20 year countdown started then, after 15+ years of payment.

      John Oliver did a great episode on it. Worth a look.

      The Biden administration honored the spirit of the deal, and forgave her loan in January. If it weren’t for that, she’d have another ~15 years of payments.

    • gAlienLifeform@lemmy.world
      3·
      3 months ago

      Also, they’re not even doing this yet, they’ve only just now proposed the rule and still need to put it through like 6 to 12 months of public comments and defending it against any changes. So it’s overdue, undersized, and could all fall apart before it goes into practice, but they’re going to try to campaign on it anyway because they know in the amount of time it takes for a reporter to explain all of that Trump will have said/done like five more outrageous and stupid things that will drown out any criticism.