Columbia, SC – Democrat Elizabeth Warren is proposing the elimination of existing student loan debt for millions of Americans, part of a sweeping set of education funding proposals announced as she and other presidential candidates seek to differentiate themselves in a sprawling field.
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The Massachusetts senator says the proposal unveiled Monday would eliminate almost all student loan debt for 42 million Americans, canceling $50,000 in debt for each person with household income under $100,000. According to Warren’s description of the plan in a piece to be posted on Medium, the debt cancellation proposal would create a one-time cost to the federal government of $640 billion.
Many in the growing field of Democratic candidates have proposed reforming the nation’s student loan programs, including dramatic restructuring of existing refinancing structures, but Warren appears to be the first to propose flat-out debt cancellation. Warren and others in the field, including Sens. Cory Booker, Kirsten Gillibrand and Kamala Harris, are backing the Debt-Free College Act , a bill that would cover all costs for students attending a public college without necessitating loans.
Among Warren’s other proposals is elimination of tuition and fees for two- and four-year public college degree programs, as well as a $100 billion investment in Pell Grants, a federal aid program that requires no payback.
Tuition-free higher education was a mainstay of Vermont Sen. Bernie Sanders’s 2016 presidential run. Warren, Harris and Sen. Kirsten Gillibrand, another presidential contender, all signed on as co-sponsors of Sanders’ 2017 College for All Act , which would have allocated $47 billion annually to states to cover two-thirds of the tuition obligation, leaving states responsible for the rest.
Warren announced the policy ahead of a CNN town hall in New Hampshire focusing on issues important to young voters. Her slot in the five-hour broadcast Monday comes along with other appearances by Harris, Sanders and Sen. Amy Klobuchar as well as Pete Buttigieg, mayor of South Bend, Indiana.
Following New Hampshire, Warren this week is making stops in South Carolina, Texas, Iowa and Nevada.
A great idea. Not allowing bankruptcy for educational debts was a very bad idea.
And of course the middle class will pay for it !!! Take all Politicians and dump them .
It would make more sense to just give everybody who files tax returns a $5,000 bonus. (Equals same $640 billion)
Or educational bonus – If you have education debt, it goes to pay it off, if not, it goes towards education.
Makes no sense to me to just cancel debt of the higher educated.
By all that I have read on the topic, it seems that the old truism was working here – the more money the government threw at the student loans the more the institutions simply raised their rates to take in the maximum they could get. And, in a system like that, there was very little improvement in the quality of the product (product=”education”), and even worse, the quality could well have gone down in order to attract more (unqualified) students a.k.a. money.
So as example, the interest rate (for example) was not adjusted to the “risk” factor of the major taken. True private enterprise would place a heavy burden on students taking a loan to study subjects that have a poor chance of paying off (or for that matter, attending institutions that were not supplying quality product).
So the question is not the hundreds of billions that it will cost to pay off these loans. ,The question is whether anyone has learned the lesson here of government interference. And seeing as the Democrats are continuing to throw tax payer money away as a bribe for votes, it seems it will only get a lot worse under the Democrats.
Warren and the far left of the Democrats are dedicated to proving that tofasta meruba lo tofasta.
I would love it but I’m not voting for her.
How about professors NOT make $300k a year, like her husband.
I agree with David Ramsey, look at the numbers before purchasing an education and make a cost benefit analysis. There are many fine state colleges which provide a good liberal arts education where you won’t go into debt. Unfortunately, parents and teens buy unto this hooey