Student Loan Relief Should Target the Neediest
Affluent Ivy League grads don’t need $50,000 in debt forgiveness.
$50,000 is a lot of money.
Photographer: Win McNamee/Getty Images
Up to now, President Joe Biden has resisted calls from the left of his party to cancel up to $50,000 of student loans for most borrowers. But the pressure from leading progressives such as Senators Elizabeth Warren and Bernie Sanders, and more recently from Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer, isn’t letting up. The president might be tempted to waver.
He shouldn’t. Debt forgiveness on that scale would be very expensive, even by current standards of fiscal liberality. More important, the cost can’t be justified. This kind of relief would mainly help people who don’t need it, and there are better ways of assisting those who do.