Headline RoundupApril 27th, 2022

Is Student Loan Forgiveness A Necessary Policy Change or Selfish Act?

Summary from the AllSides News Team

As President Joe Biden evaluates different options to substantially relieve federal student loan debt, Americans are debating the effectiveness of loan forgiveness.

Although Biden pledged during his presidential campaign to forgive at least $10,000 in student loan debt for every borrower, his administration has since taken a more moderate approach. The freeze on federal student loan payments has been extended six times since the start of the COVID-19 pandemic, and payments are currently set to resume on Sept. 1. In the meantime, a number of progressive Democrats have been pushing the Biden administration to take serious action and cancel federal student debt in its entirety. 85% of young Americans favor some form of government action on student loan debt while only 38% favor total debt cancellation, according to a recent Harvard University poll.

One NBC News (Lean Left bias) writer called the debate around student loan forgiveness a "manifestation of our country’s fetish for individualism." The op-ed also highlighted how previous generations should be "fortunate that they were able to pay off their loans during "a far more forgiving economy" and that loan forgiveness "assists those who’ve backed their loved ones’ educational debt." Conversely, an opinion writer for National Review (Right bias) called Biden's plan "a politically, and cosmically, unjustifiable robbery" that "tears directly at the social fabric" of the American class system. They argued that this policy would be a "grotesque gift to the rich" as the "overwhelming majority of student debt is held by the affluent."

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