Student Loan Forgiveness Must Be Guided by Common Sense

Despite a strong economy, and the greatest employment recovery in the history of the United States, and showing steadfast resilience against Russian aggression in Ukraine, President Joe Biden’s polling numbers continue to plummet. Democrats are prognosticating inside the White House and on Capitol Hill about why this is happening, but in my opinion, it’s obvious: All too often President Biden’s priorities are not the same as the American people’s.

This is because the White House has taken a sharp left political turn, prioritizing issues popular with “woke” coastal elites, but that do not address the everyday problems most Americans struggle with, including crime, inflation, and access to affordable healthcare and childcare.

One topic that is popular with the far-Left is forgiving college debt. To be clear, I also believe that high loads of educational debt for millions of Americans is problematic. Some of the rules surrounding these loans – such as that the debt can even survive after the death of the student – have created a system that is ripe for reform.

But the notion of the federal government just willy-nilly forgiving billions of dollars in student debt is bad policy. Yet, that is exactly what is happening as the Biden administration is seemingly embracing a policy that forgives student debt if that debt was accrued at a for-profit college, regardless of the quality of education that was provided.

In fact, the administration is signaling a move towards using the Borrower Defense to Repayment (BDTR) rule to cancel debt for anyone who attended a for-profit university.

While the BDTR provision is important for students who were genuinely defrauded by any higher education institution, what’s troubling is that the Biden administration has signaled it may eliminate any requirement of evidence that students were actually defrauded, and also that this approach will only apply to students of for-profit schools – ignoring concerns of those from traditional schools. This would lead to hundreds of thousands of students’ loans being forgiven simply because they filled out an online form.

Also, the elimination of evidence requirements or due process will undermine trust in an otherwise important safety vehicle for students. Just because a student went to a for-profit institution does not mean their loans should be forgiven. It’s essential that the ED assesses each case, to ensure the application is with merit.

This type of wholesale debt forgiveness is unfair to the millions of American families who scrimped and sacrificed to save up for their children’s educations. After all, were these parents naive for sacrificing meals out and vacations to build up college savings? Were students foolish for taking jobs to pay for their educations and avoid or lessen their debts?

In reality, the problem is that we have a world-class higher education system that is increasingly out of reach of families and leaves students overwhelmed with debt. Over the last several decades, tuition costs have far outpaced inflation.

To be fair, some of these higher tuitions reflect a decommitment from state legislatures across the country to fund the institutions of higher education. I witnessed this firsthand in my home state of Massachusetts, where I served in the House of Representatives. These financial cuts to higher education were always hard to make, but they were symptoms of growing state debts and budget deficits.

One last thing to consider, is that there are unused resources to help students afford college. According to a report by the National College Attainment Network, in 2021 $3.75 billion in available Pell Grants were unclaimed. The Department of Education should refocus on working with high schools, colleges and community groups to ensure that students apply for these grants, rather than taking out loans.

If the Biden administration were to tack back to the political center, it would mean using government to address the challenges being faced by the vast majority of Americans. By working to help regular folks, Joe Biden can get back to his working-class roots that helped get him elected President. On the flip side, waiving college debt for millions of Americans with no regard for whether or not they deserve that forgiveness, would only further alienate the President from most Americans.

Hank Naughton is the President of Centrist Democrats of America. Previously he served close to three decades in the Massachusetts House of Representatives.