Headline Roundup January 19, 2024
What's the State of Student Loan Forgiveness?
Summary from the AllSides News Team
President Joe Biden pledged to cancel at least $10,000 in student debt relief for borrowers making less than $125,000 a year during his campaign. Where does that goal stand?
The Details: The Supreme Court denied Biden's original goal of wiping roughly $430 billion in student debt last summer, but separate cancellation efforts have continued. The White House says more than $130 billion in student debt has been forgiven under Biden. On Friday, the Biden administration announced the cancellation of $5 billion more in student debt for 74,000 borrowers, mainly public servants. Next month, qualified borrowers who are enrolled in the Saving on a Valuable Education (SAVE) program will also have their debt erased.
For Context: As of this writing, over 43 million U.S. borrowers hold a total of $1.63 trillion in student loan debt.
How the Media Covered It: Many left- and center-rated sources highlighted the recent forgiveness efforts. Conversely, few right-rated sources covered them, and The Washington Times (Lean Right bias) and Daily Wire (Right) highlighted a survey suggesting that some borrowers are skipping payments while holding out for more forgiveness.
Why the Difference: People on the political right are generally less supportive of what they see as unfair or excessive debt forgiveness programs. People on the left are typically more supportive of what they see as efforts to relieve undue financial strain on borrowers.
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The Biden administration announced Friday it’s canceling approximately $5 billion in student debt relief, largely for public servants, the latest incremental step the White House has taken on student loan forgiveness, even though its more ambitious student loan relief program was thwarted by the Supreme Court.
The administration approved debt relief for approximately 74,000 borrowers, the White House said Friday.
Of those 74,000, approximately 44,000 are public servants like teachers, nurses and firefighters who qualified for loan forgiveness after 10 years through the Public Service Loan Forgiveness program.
Americans saddled with student debt are boycotting their repayments to increase election-year pressure on President Biden to keep his promise of more loan forgiveness.
Since the federal government stopped a three-year “pandemic pause” on student loan repayments in October, only 40% of borrowers have paid all their monthly obligations. Meanwhile, 35% have made some payments and 25% haven’t made any, an Intelligent.com survey found.
One in 10 student loan borrowers said they have been skipping their payments intentionally to pressure Mr. Biden to cancel more debt, the survey found. Dissatisfaction...
More than six months after the U.S. Supreme Court struck down President Joe Biden’s ambitious program to erase $430 billion in student loan debt, the White House has been rolling out smaller, more targeted relief programs that it says have now canceled $132 billion in debt for more than 3.6 million Americans.
At the time of the court's decision, it appeared that Biden wasn't going to be make good on one of the biggest promises he made to young voters, who helped propel him into the White House. But as...
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