The legality of President Biden’s proposal to forgive a portion of outstanding student loans will be argued before the Supreme Court later this month. Whatever the decision, this may be a time for Congress to look more closely at the student loan program itself, initiated in 1992, and one of the most important sources of funding for higher education.
Although it makes sense to assist needy students with low-cost government loans, the student loan program is a government subsidy like any other. As such, it should be regularly reviewed by Congress for it effects, good and bad. Although student loans have undoubtedly made higher education more accessible to more Americans, it has also enabled colleges and universities to increase tuitions faster than the rate of inflation, stimulated a sharp growth in college non-educational bureaucracies, and failed to erase or adjust the wide imbalance in the political perspectives of tenured faculty. Since all Americans are taxed for this program, it should not favor only one political group.
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