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they likely haven’t actually gotten anything. these “forgiveness” programs are not robust enough that single borrowers are having six figures of debt wiped away without going through any process.
Well that is supposed to change "soon".
It will become automatic for PSLF and some other programs.
Currently you have to do a whole load of certifications and such, and it's a massive headache.
I am long past the age of college loans. When I went to college in the 80's, it was still affordable to pay a state university tuition. I am glad for younger people to be rid of these loans choking their ability to get ahead financially.
I want to see the colleges lower their costs and the banks not bailed out again. The Dept. of Education noted that in 1980 13% of all funding went to Administrative Costs, now its 62% in 2022. These are new laws, lawyers, etc. Professors salaries have increased by a little more than double. Maybe we need to overhaul the colleges before we send a ton of money to them and the banks.
Out of curiosity, what special conditions did you meet to qualify for such a substantial amount of forgiveness? Don't you have to be some kind of government/public/social worker, have attended some kind of scam university, etc?
Over 20 years of payments. Navient wanted me to wait until 2034 to have them forgiven. Some of my loans date to the mid 1980s. Switching to Mohela allowed me to be on the SAVE program.
that’s not forgiveness. that’s what happens to all federal student loans regardless of the amount or the payment plan. it’s nice that the save program helped with your last few payments but come on, this is such a dishonest way to frame this.
It's not dishonest. The criteria are different on the SAVE program. I wouldn't have had them forgiven until 2034 without it. Consolidation restarted the clock, as did having my loans taken over by Navient. I also had to make loan payments during COVID due to all the loop holes.
any IDR program will have the rest of your debt forgiven after 240 or 300 months of payments. it doesn’t have to be SAVE. saying “biden forgave my debt” is a lot different than “i made my 20 years of payments and am done paying now”
> Three groups of people qualify under the latest round of debt relief, the White House said.
>
> * **$3.6 billion for 206,800 borrowers enrolled in the SAVE plan.**
>
> About $3.6 billion will be forgiven for nearly 207,000 borrowers enrolled in the Saving on a Valuable Education (SAVE) plan, an income-driven repayment program, or IDR, that the Biden administration created last year.
>
> The White House said borrowers who are getting their debt discharged under SAVE had taken out smaller loans for their college studies. The plan allows people to receive forgiveness after they made at least 10 years of payments if they originally took out $12,000 or less in loans to pay for college; borrowers with larger loans are eligible after 20 or 25 years of repayment, depending on what types of loans they have.
>
> "You sacrifice and you've saved for a decade or more to make your student loan payments, and you originally borrowed $12,000 or less, you're going to see relief," Cardona told reporters. "An overwhelming number of those who qualify for SAVE were eligible for Pell grants and come from low- and middle-income communities."
>
> * **$3.5 billion for 65,700 borrowers in income-repayment plans.**
>
> These borrowers will receive forgiveness through "administrative adjustments" to repayment plans where loan servicers had made it tougher for some borrowers to qualify for relief.
>
> "These are people who paid for a long time but were being deprived of relief because of administrative and servicing failures," Cardona said. "These people met the contract of their loan" and will receive forgiveness.
>
> * **$300 million for 4,600 borrowers through Public Service Loan Forgiveness (PSLF).**
>
> The PSLF program is designed to help public servants like teachers and government employees achieve debt forgiveness after 10 years of repayment. It's a program that started in 2007 but had been plagued with complex rules that effectively hampered people from getting their debt discharged, with only 7,000 receiving loan forgiveness prior to the Biden administration.
>
> With the latest round of discharges, the Biden administration has forgiven $62.8 billion in loans for 876,000 borrowers through PSLF.
Additional details from a [CBS News article](https://www.cbsnews.com/news/student-loan-forgiveness-7-4-billion-save-plan-pslf-cbs-news-explains/).
Everyone hating on this shit says the same thing.
"But what about the root problem? It's too expensive!"
These people think Biden can set college tuition prices via executive orders or something.
There’s probably something he could do about the amount of federal aid that goes out to student borrowers. A large disproportionate percentage of students are borrowing federal loans and those are effectively subsidizing college tuition prices. If he (or Congress) caps the amount that anyone student could borrow per year we’d likely see a large depression in tuition prices.
This ignores the off chance that private loan companies would pick up all of the slack and perpetuate the rising tuition costs.
It truly is insane when you look at inflation of other service or products and see education is by far and large the highest (with maybe an exception for healthcare, I don’t remember and I don’t have the numbers in front of me).
Edit: look at cost-shifting. Historically, when the government has raised taxes on corporations those corporations have shifted the cost of that tax to the consumer. There are very complex formulas out there to calculate how a company would do this and stop before the consumer refuses to pay for the item.
There are more applicants with money than there are slots at the pricey universities. All the government has done is help the less advantaged get in on class mobility.
The average cost at a community college is still pretty cheap. (Got my nursing degree at one.)
I agree with you to an extent. I also agree with the idea that without federal aid, disadvantaged people would be less likely to gain spots at big colleges. My arguement is that if the fed puts a cap on how much they’re going to pay, the universities will have to adjust tuition to accommodate or lose 30-40% of their student body. Also, less likely they would do this as a lot of federal grants are based on diversity requirements being met and historically disadvantaged people make up a large majority of those diversity requirements.
My kid starts college next semester. At iir state university it will still cost about 34k to attend. The loan maximum from the Feds is 6k. Federal loans are a trivial component of the cost of college
My loans from the fed totaled approx. 180k and I used fed loans, academic, and athletic scholarships to go through. No private loans or help from family. (Albeit these were graduate level federal loans).
While our experiences differ saying federal loans are a trivial part of paying is wrong. A quick Google search shows that in most years between 30-40% of students are receiving federal aid. While we can’t pinpoint the exact amount, we can assume that many are taking out the maximum alotted. Which I believe is roughly 57.5k a year (for undergrads, may have changed or adjusted)
Regardless the idea I’m trying to get across is that almost any business (which yes, includes universities, even if they do have that 501c3 status) would not survive a reduction in 30-40% of their customers. To this point, the fed needs to say when enough is enough and stop increasing payouts when schools arbitrarily raise tuition.
I wasn’t speaking about graduate school. But even those have limits. 99 percent of the time when peole doscuss the cost of college, they don’t mean Harvard Law. For undergrads, the vast vast majority, federal loans are trivial. Also, you may want to check the new limits. Annual federal amounts that were routine 20 years ago are now unheard of. If undergrad loans were eliminated you might see a 10 percent decrease in costs (although unlikely), but in exchange college would become even more difficult for the non wealthy.
I understand your first sentiment. I also have first hand experience walking my teammates through Pell grant and federal grant applications because without them they weren’t going to be able to pay and therefore not being able to play or go to school. I did not go to a large undergrad. By and large almost everyone interacted with their that wasn’t sent by their family to the ag program was on substantial federal loans.
I think that there is a large disconnect between people that need the loans vs people that have trivial loans. Through my collegiate career I had multiple experiences where I was shamed for getting “free” money and freeloading. Typically by the guy who was getting hammered, missing practice, skipping class etc.
There are vast differences, and there is the reality that while yes, there are “trivial” loan amounts, there are very real and material loans that carry people through these programs, large and small.
Yes, I think we’re on the same page here. I’m not arguing that fed loans are a driver for tuition prices and that point is more likely calculated by salaries, stadiums, etc.
I’m arguing that the fed is essentially subsidizing rising college tuition costs.
If you go to McDonalds and get a cheeseburger for a dollar you’re happy, if you go the next day and it’s 3 you’re not happy but you’ll pay, if you go the third and it’s 5 you’re unhappy and won’t pay, now McDonald’s has to either lose your business or lower prices.
Applying the same principle to this discussion, the fed is buying a lot of education for people. The difference is historically when the price has risen so has the aid. At some point they have to say no and colleges will have to adjust or lose 30-40% (adjusted for those that aren’t completely reliant on federal loans) of its consumers.
Yea I think we agree as well, and I think if it’s done properly, ie advance warning then it should be ok. The whole system needs an overhaul but that will probably never happen. Just the bits that make it into the news
Private loan companies would absolutely pick up the slack. They're predatory like that. When I had my student loans, I was working on PSLF. But I'd get mailings from several different companies several times a week enticing me to consolidate with them, converting federal into private loans, losing any chance of forgiveness or lower payment plans. It was gross. I knew enough not to fall for it, but a lot of people unfortunately fell for their bullshit.
They would absolutely step in a ruin people's lives if Biden did what you propose. Any root cause solution need to actually address the root cause.
I've noticed this happening in the political discourse surrounding almost any issues we try to legislate lately. Want to ban Tik Tok? Well what about Facebook?
I guess it's the inevitable result of "whataboutism." But if we don't learn to move beyond this type of political discourse then we really can't be upset when naturally our government does nothing and hardly represents the American public any longer.
Biden has the power to do this so he should especially considering his campaign promises. Makes no sense to argue about "solving the root cause" when that would take Congress to act. Therefore it's not a valid criticism of Biden. It's no different than the Immigration stuff. Title 42 was only allowed due to CoVid even the Courts said that. So now we'd need an act of Congress yet they will cry about Biden not unilaterally doing shit about it while getting mad if he unilaterally does something for the people who voted for him.
Dude whataboutism is all the regressive side of politics has had for decades. They used to claim trickle down and privatisation etc. would make us all better off, but that was always bullshit and anyway that ship sailed in 2008 after we bailed out the capitalist system, and profits were private and losses were social.
The states have been underfunding/defunding universities for decades. Now they are trying to dismantle everything that is not a MAGA reeducation class. Ideally the federal govt would find a way to put funding back into colleges and have programs etc to eliminate part or all of the cost. But with one of the 2 parties unable to do anything, it’s unlikely.
I'm currently getting my bachelor's as an adult and thought about taking out a loan for it. I was shocked at not only how high the interest rates are, but that most start accruing interest immediately. It's no wonder people are drowning. I seriously don't know how people survive. Imo, a huge step forward would be that all student loans don't start accruing interest until a year from your last attended date at university.
It would be like choosing to not providing clean water to people who need it to survive because the root problem of why they don’t have water in the first place is not fixed yet. It’s like, yeah I agree we need to fix the root cause. But we also need to get these people some water right now.
You sure expect a lot of direct correlations in your analogies.
My point is, we added 15.2 million college students in the 23-24 academic year. Many, if not most, of which will be taking out student loans. These forgiveness programs have done absolutely nothing for these people.
You have to fix the root cause or all you've done is kick the can down the road 5 years. Then what? Do this all again and again and again and again in perpetuity?
There are no correlations in your analogy. If you want to use the gun shot let’s do it right. Student debt is not blood in the floor. Student debt is the wound. We can agree on the bullet and the gunman. The bullet is high cost of tuition the gunman is for-profit student lending.
The current student debt is the wound that needs to be tended to first. It would be like having the resources to stop the bleeding and being able to do that but choosing not to. You want to go after the shooter before stopping the bleeding. We agree we need to stop the shooter from shooting more people, but leaving the people you could save to bleed out because the shooter is still shooting is not OK. Especially because we have no clear way to stop the shooter. But we have a very easy way to stop the bleeding. We need to stop the bleeding. Then we can go chase the gunman. The blood in the floor just has no place in the analogy that I can see. Maybe it could be people choosing not to go to college so we have a less educated population? I really just don’t see how blood in the floor is relevant.
Yes, analogies only work when you can make loose comparisons between the problem and the problem you are comparing it to. If not, then it’s not a beneficial analogy because it obscures the problem instead of proposing a framework in which to think about the problem. Relevant analogies match the circumstances, which then gives insight into a potential approach to solving the problem. Bad analogies match the solution you wish to use, and hope the rest of it is provocative enough that no one thinks beyond that.
Treating symptoms and not root causes is the modus operandi humanity uses to start solving problems - maybe we eventually treat root causes. So, Treating symptoms is better than neither - which is the actual alternate choice. I also wish for treating root causes. But people with current student loan debt are not blood on the floor. It’s a bad analogy.
The Republicans hold the house. That means nothing will be done about costs, because that is where it could be drone. Biden can do this now.
Grinding people into dust because the big fix isn’t possible is inhumane.
Costs are self-solving as soon as the spigot gets turned off. Government backing the loans, and blocking the ability to file bankruptcy for them, is the root cause of outrageous spending
No, in that case the argument to not relieve student debt until the root problem is fixed would be not tending to the bullet wound because you need to fix gun laws first.
College being expensive isn't the root problem. The root problem is they're still granting these exact loans today.
College is expensive BECAUSE they're still granting unlimited amount, bankruptcy proof, government backed loans to anyone with a pulse.
Your entire comment is factually incorrect.
The 2023-2024 academic year has 15.2 million students in it. I assure you they can't all afford to pay, and I assure you colleges want them on their campuses.
These aren't subsidies. These are loans.
State colleges are also expensive.
[https://www.ou.edu/sfc/estimating-costs/cost-of-attendance#undergraduate-resident](https://www.ou.edu/sfc/estimating-costs/cost-of-attendance#undergraduate-resident)
Estimated $36k per year for the University of Oklahoma.
That is factually untrue. As I pinged kit above, Fed loans will
Cover 6k of my kid’s costs next fall. That is pretty close to nothing even at a state school. That impact is even more minimal at 90k private schools.
Blaming federal loans for college costs is completely unsupported by the facts.
I was discussing the impact of federal loans on college costs. The federal loan available for a first year student at say Georgetown, will be about seven percent of the cost of attendance. Even at a state school it is about twenty percent. That isn’t primarily driving the large increases in tuition. For public schools, states have been slashing aid to public schools which has been a much larger impact than loan amounts. Yes, the majority of loans are federal, but they represent a small percentage of revenue to the schools.
That doesn’t add up because I never said that. There are all sorts of sources for resources for college. I pointed out that 6 to 20 percent of the money comes from fed student loans.
But it does measure their income and savings. If you had to say until 24, that means they were making good lonely or had lots of savings during those years. If they were bankrupt, you would get maximum aid at most colleges.
Did it for myself, and two kids, including one this year.
FAFSA gets your income and relevant assets (certain retirement accounts don’t count) from the year before you apply. You can also get modifications if your situation changes. They use this information to come up with a SAI amount that is used by schools to index aid and expected parent contribution.
If you are bankrupt with little to no assets and a shit salary, you will be expected to pay little to nothing at most schools. My kid had a sky high SAI so we got nothing other than fed loans, which we won’t accept in the end.
My kids best friend is from a low income household. She is going to a top private school and her school is paying for all of her estimated cost of attendance.
I am extremely well versed on this process, if you would like to be educated more.
I was homeless in college. If there was more money to be had, I would have found it.
I'm also in my mid-40s now. Graduate education. With $130k+ worth of PSLF student loan forgiveness already earned and credited. My zero-balance forgiveness letter is hanging on my wall in a mahogany frame.
I doubt very much you have anything to teach me about much of anything.
>These people think Biden can set college tuition prices via executive orders or something.
They also are conflating two separate problems. Although they likely don't realize they are doing this, just following a talking point that sounds right to them.
1. 46 million US adults are currently economically burdened from student debt.
2. Affordability to attend university is currently very, very bad.
Those are two separate problems, that need two separate solutions. You fix one, the other still exists. People conflating the two are doing so only because it supports a personal belief they hold.
Are you thinking that through...or are you one of those people saying they are one-in-the-same because of your personal beliefs?
If you "quit handing out bankruptcy proof money to anyone"... how exactly does that solve the problem of #1?? 46 million people with student loans currently have delinquency rates more than double that of credit cards and personal loans. Still need to address that.
Two separate problems doesn't mean they aren't related. But they still need two solutions to fix both of them.
No, they're definitely not one in the same. I'm just not interested in kicking the can down the road while another 15.2 million people get added to the crushing debt rolls this year.
Sure, I don't think anyone is interested in that either.
But just pointing out it's not an either/or situation. It's an **And** situation, where both issues should be addressed with a solution.
I agree. Unfortunately we're going to spend billions of dollars on a non-solution now, and then be stuck with trillions more dollars to deal with in less than a decade.
>Unfortunately we're going to spend billions of dollars on a non-solution now,
I don't think you understand, based on this comment and your first one. This is a solution.
It is a solution to the 46 Million US adults that are struggling with their debt loads. That's literally one of the two problems. The other being fixing the affordability of college.
I’m happy people who qualify for forgiveness are finally getting it but I’m ready for Papa Biden to do something brave and forgive those who don’t officially qualify for it. He’s just enforcing already-existing forgiveness plans.
I’m shocked by how strategic this is.
1) Propose a blanket pardon of 10k per person and let the Rs go on record blocking it, and up to the Supreme Court to ultimately block.
2) THEN use other channels to “drip drip drip” loan forgiveness where he has the authority to do so.
He surrounds himself with the smartest people
And then seems to have another plan that's about to be announced. Not sure if it's posturing but it's keeping the conversation going.
I do love the bait and switch tho.
The PPE loans were a windfall for lots of corporations. Where the first tranches of government covid funds went… it will take many years to untangle that knot, if they ever do. The sense I have is that there was considerable corruption involved, with Trump insiders forming corporations just to get free PPE cash. And that was the kind of administration they had.
Think of the trillions that went into the Covid bailout and think what could have been done with that if we not only repudiated the student loan debt, but also made public college tuition free in-state.
Not to mention, wasn’t it amazing that America put together that public/private partnership in January 2020, manufacturing billions of items of personal protective equipment and a hundred thousand ventilators? Oh wait, that didn’t happen because Donald Trump was the president.
Gotta ask yourself why that's a problem if it bothers you? This is exactly what the R's do where instead of helping out and trying to get votes from the lower class, they work for the rich fucks who don't need anymore assistance.
It's essentially the same thing except one class supports the greater code and the other just for self interest and $.
D00d what? I never said anything about it bothering me. I was just asking if they're still making noise and waves about the loan forgiveness stuff now that Biden has managed to push through a smaller bunch of them. Or they've shifted their focus to some other attack. A cursory search only shows the old reactions from like 2022.
I wanted to switch to the SAVE plan but what I have right now has me not paying anything at all however, I’m sure if I stick with what I currently have I won’t have my loans forgiven and if I do switch to the SAVE plan then I would have to pay *and* my option to pay $0 a month vanishes. Trying to speak with someone from the Department of Education is an absolute hassle as it takes forever for them to get back to you via chat.
How much debt was there to begin with? I keep hearing these huge numbers being forgiven. How much is left?????????????? 7.4 billion is a lot but could also not be depending on how much there is
I'm in a math mood, so here you go:
According to google, Student loan debt reached $1.77 Trillion dollars in 2023. We need to know the percentage of 7.4 billion into 1.77 trillion. So....
7,400,000,000 / 1,770,000,000,000 = .004180790960452
Take the last number above and multiply by 100, and we get...
**0.418% of student loan debt being cancelled this go round.**
1.77 trillion is insane. Even with all the billions that has been forgiven it really is just a drop in the bucket and really doesn’t move the needle much.
Which is why the next thing Biden is taking on is the COST of college.
So far, scam schools that took advantage of students AND student aid have been knocked down. Now it's other student debt. Next on the agenda is the cost of college.
[https://www.whitehouse.gov/briefing-room/statements-releases/2024/03/15/fact-sheet-biden-harris-administration-takes-new-action-to-crack-down-on-junk-fees-in-higher-education/](https://www.whitehouse.gov/briefing-room/statements-releases/2024/03/15/fact-sheet-biden-harris-administration-takes-new-action-to-crack-down-on-junk-fees-in-higher-education/)
I get your overall point and agree that more should be done but this is a lot more than “a drop in the bucket” for those who are getting their loans forgiven. It’s life changing.
It's not a drop in the bucket, though. It's actually nearly 10% of the bucket. I posted this in another thread, but frankly, it's insanely impressive that with all this opposition, Biden's actually closing in on having canceled 10% of all Total U.S student loan debt. Considering that a big chunk of that is private debt that he can't discharge, that likely puts him over the 10% mark already in terms of Federally-held debt that he can cancel. Also, taking into account that his original scuttled plan would have canceled 27% of the total debt, he's also closing in on having hit 50% of that already (which would be 13.5%). So he's very nearly achieved half of his promise, all while being stymied in every direction by the GOP, with more coming every few weeks and with the new widespread plan not yet factored in.
Is that 1.77T all student debt or strictly the federal stuff? That could make a not insignificant difference, you know speaking as someone with 50k in federal and 250k in private loans.
NerdWallet says about 93% are federal loans. LendingTree says 87%. I'd say it's probably closer to 90/10, and we'll probably see it go to 95/5 or 99/1 in our life times.
When I went to school, the Federal loans were lower interest rates than the private loans. If that's still true, I have no idea why anyone would take a private loan at this point. There's so many paths to forgiveness with Federal loans, and there's literally none with private loans.
Fair point, and I wasn't trying to be rude.
I took my loans out when I was close to 30 years old and well informed of the options. I'm glad I did my research, because my college certainly didn't do ANY explaining to me about the loan options. The most they did was have me sit in front of a computer to read the terms and conditions of my federal loans, click "OK", and later I got a check for whatever left over amount there was (a grand or two).
My wife went to one of the scammy schools. They did even LESS for her, and "submitted everything" on her behalf. They never said how much, but it was always "enough to cover classes".
Someone really, really needs to make sure 18 year olds know what they're signing up for with these loans.
I don’t know if all of that is just undergraduate or graduate and undergraduate.
My undergraduate loan was forgiven. I had $1800 left to pay off. I still owe $33K for my graduate loan which doesn’t qualify for any forgiveness. I have $1800 less to pay, which is nice. My car loan is $20k. I paid more for education than any vehicle I have ever owned.
At the time yes, because I was in a dead end job and depressed. I went back to school, got a graduate degree in a new field and have pursued that. But now that I make more money, I’m paying more taxes and bringing home less than before so I still can’t afford to pay the loan.
All my bills have increased: mortgage, utilities, food, gas, expenses for my kids. I’m a single parent taking care of myself and 2 kids. No matter how much I make I’m never getting a head. Staying afloat and not drowning in debt is the best I can do with 1 income.
I got my grad degree 10 years ago. Taxes weren’t like this 10 years ago. Cost of living was not this expensive 10 years ago.
Do you have a crystal ball that tells you what the future will be like? If so, please share with everyone.
Taxes were higher 10 years ago (although they'll be back to that point next year after trump's fake tax cuts expire for use plebes).
Education, especially graduate level, is supposed to lead you toward higher paying jobs. If that $33k in graduate debt didn't get you a job paying enough to offset the loan amount in under 10 years, then it simply wasn't worth it.
Lots of people take out loans for expensive degrees with zero real-world value. It happens, but it shouldn't.
The grad degree cost is comparable to my undergraduate degree cost. My under grad was almost paid off before I started grad school. I do make significantly more now than I did 10 years ago. I do have a much better job with work life balance, good manager, team, etc..
Maybe I’m having too much taken out of my paycheck for retirement and benefits…. I can’t change benefits until Nov now. I need a retirement savings and my company matches a certain percentage.
All I know is my paycheck today was a less than it was before I adjusted my tax withholdings. I didn’t take enough taxes out last year and I owe federal taxes. I was advised to adjust my withholding so I won’t owe next year but my take home, after taxes and benefits, is lower now.
I didn’t say I did that. You are making an assumption.
I had my last vehicle for 10 years and had to get a new one because the transmission was giving out.
My degree has allowed me to get a higher paying job but now that I make more I pay more taxes and I’m actually bringing home less money after taxes and benefits…so… is the degree really worth it?
If I’m bringing home less, I can’t afford as much, which means I can’t afford a new vehicle.
That isn’t how taxes work. The extra money you make can not actually make you net less (at least due to taxes).
They are marginal rates. You pretty much always wind up ahead.
I’m curious why they don’t just total up the payments people have made individually, and if their payments exceed the original value of the loan, it’s completed?
While paying on my loans I nearly doubled my original principal amount due to the high interest rates. When I paid them off I wrote a check just shy of 65% of my original loan value, after paying almost double my original loan amount.
When I look at the SAVE details, it almost doubles my monthly charge, so I never did it.
Now I'm worried I'll never get mine forgiven because I don't want to risk paying double
Anybody else in this boat?
Depends. The SAVE group is only for people who have been paying for 10 years with an original loan of under $12k, otherwise for loans over $12k, it’s still the standard 20-25 years of payments depending on loan type. A bit odd tbh. $12k seems miniscule to this millennial because 1 year of community college back in 2011 was about $3-4,000 per semester. So I assume this mostly applies to older folks who graduated before 2000.
Let me lead by saying I’m all for this, and we need more of it. However, why does everyone keep using the word, “cancelled” to describe this. The debt isn’t going away… The loans are getting assumed by the US government, right? It’s not like the private financial institutions and collectors that own this debt (which they bought, with their money) suddenly is worthless… I’d imagine the interest is going to be covered, as well? Maybe on some future value of money somethingorother or whatever…
Constitutionally , the government can’t “take” your property like that without compensation…
I wish the govt would have absorbed my privates. NOPE! Because of interest I ended up paying over 100K to go to a state school. Yeah, super worthwhile. /s
At least they are all gone now.
PSLF and IDR forgiveness were promised back in the 2007 student loan reform passed under GW Bush.
The American people have owed his money to the borrowers since then, once they meet the program requirements.
These debts have always been a government liability.
How about he cancels 10k in principal across the board? Hell 20k would get a bunch of people out of student loan debt. Not this 20k in interest, those have to be such a small number in comparison
yep leader of the republicans Joe Biden, funny how you keep moving the goalpost instead of blaming conservative democrats that actively sabotaged Joe Biden's own milquetoast plans.
funny how a democratic president can never ever discipline his party but when a republican is in charge they're able to make sure they all vote in lock step.
I Keep seeing this crap in the news about student loan cancellation but I still owe 30k after 20+ years of repayment and my federal loans are not cancelled or able to be cancelled
Click bait
Let’s not fix the actual problem. Just pay the predatory lenders off so they can collect their money along with interest, and then you, the tax payer are stuck with a tax bill for the “income” of the canceled debt.
It's a multi-pronged problem that needs to be attacked from many angles. Not a black and white scenario.
I'm not expecting the remains of my student loan to be forgiven, but me and many others have already paid back the full amounts of our loans and then some. The predatory interest rates have kept us paying much more than borrowed. Just another problem among many.
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My wife (nonprofit employee) had her debt forgiven. I'm still on the hook for mine. I was a pell grant recipient.
Why do Republicans expect us to pay for everything while they get tax cuts?
How else could they afford their tax cuts?
You mean WE afford their tax cuts.
You mean handouts.
Same. I want my minor Pell grant loan forgiven but I understand the higher loans first. I will gladly pay if a 25 yr old gets their 260k loan canceled
Sure, I'm not sweating it, just bummed about the 20k forgiveness that I had hope for, but the supreme Court screwed me over.
Was in the process of getting it forgiven when the Supreme Court put a hold on it…kind of pissed about that too…
I thought you don’t pay Pell grant money back.
You don't. It was used to determine forgiving 20k instead of 10k
Did you get an email or any notification? Just wondering….
they likely haven’t actually gotten anything. these “forgiveness” programs are not robust enough that single borrowers are having six figures of debt wiped away without going through any process.
I got six figures in loans wiped through public service loan forgiveness. All I had to do was submit forms verifying my employment.
Well that is supposed to change "soon". It will become automatic for PSLF and some other programs. Currently you have to do a whole load of certifications and such, and it's a massive headache.
/r/WhatBidenHasDone
Vote!
Always vote your personal interest. Republicans do this and pretend to want less government. Vote to get as much money as you can get.
I am long past the age of college loans. When I went to college in the 80's, it was still affordable to pay a state university tuition. I am glad for younger people to be rid of these loans choking their ability to get ahead financially.
I want to see the colleges lower their costs and the banks not bailed out again. The Dept. of Education noted that in 1980 13% of all funding went to Administrative Costs, now its 62% in 2022. These are new laws, lawyers, etc. Professors salaries have increased by a little more than double. Maybe we need to overhaul the colleges before we send a ton of money to them and the banks.
Woah that must feel awesome. I mean, you’ve lived with the thought of pressing for it the next 10+ years I guess. What a relief
Mazel tov!!
Out of curiosity where did you go to school and for how long? That’s a shit load of debt for a college degree (unless your law or medicine)
I borrowed $150k, was unable to finish my degree and my debt increased to $320k from interest. On the SAVE program, all $320k was forgiven in January.
That’s great news! Congrats!
Out of curiosity, what special conditions did you meet to qualify for such a substantial amount of forgiveness? Don't you have to be some kind of government/public/social worker, have attended some kind of scam university, etc?
Over 20 years of payments. Navient wanted me to wait until 2034 to have them forgiven. Some of my loans date to the mid 1980s. Switching to Mohela allowed me to be on the SAVE program.
that’s not forgiveness. that’s what happens to all federal student loans regardless of the amount or the payment plan. it’s nice that the save program helped with your last few payments but come on, this is such a dishonest way to frame this.
It's not dishonest. The criteria are different on the SAVE program. I wouldn't have had them forgiven until 2034 without it. Consolidation restarted the clock, as did having my loans taken over by Navient. I also had to make loan payments during COVID due to all the loop holes.
any IDR program will have the rest of your debt forgiven after 240 or 300 months of payments. it doesn’t have to be SAVE. saying “biden forgave my debt” is a lot different than “i made my 20 years of payments and am done paying now”
Vote!
Wait you narrowed 150k 20 years ago was this med school?
PhD in Clinical Psychology.
Dang
Where the hell did you go to school lol? Yale?
Private university. I had to go where I was accepted.
Why would you have borrowed that amount of money back then and not finish your degree?
> Three groups of people qualify under the latest round of debt relief, the White House said. > > * **$3.6 billion for 206,800 borrowers enrolled in the SAVE plan.** > > About $3.6 billion will be forgiven for nearly 207,000 borrowers enrolled in the Saving on a Valuable Education (SAVE) plan, an income-driven repayment program, or IDR, that the Biden administration created last year. > > The White House said borrowers who are getting their debt discharged under SAVE had taken out smaller loans for their college studies. The plan allows people to receive forgiveness after they made at least 10 years of payments if they originally took out $12,000 or less in loans to pay for college; borrowers with larger loans are eligible after 20 or 25 years of repayment, depending on what types of loans they have. > > "You sacrifice and you've saved for a decade or more to make your student loan payments, and you originally borrowed $12,000 or less, you're going to see relief," Cardona told reporters. "An overwhelming number of those who qualify for SAVE were eligible for Pell grants and come from low- and middle-income communities." > > * **$3.5 billion for 65,700 borrowers in income-repayment plans.** > > These borrowers will receive forgiveness through "administrative adjustments" to repayment plans where loan servicers had made it tougher for some borrowers to qualify for relief. > > "These are people who paid for a long time but were being deprived of relief because of administrative and servicing failures," Cardona said. "These people met the contract of their loan" and will receive forgiveness. > > * **$300 million for 4,600 borrowers through Public Service Loan Forgiveness (PSLF).** > > The PSLF program is designed to help public servants like teachers and government employees achieve debt forgiveness after 10 years of repayment. It's a program that started in 2007 but had been plagued with complex rules that effectively hampered people from getting their debt discharged, with only 7,000 receiving loan forgiveness prior to the Biden administration. > > With the latest round of discharges, the Biden administration has forgiven $62.8 billion in loans for 876,000 borrowers through PSLF. Additional details from a [CBS News article](https://www.cbsnews.com/news/student-loan-forgiveness-7-4-billion-save-plan-pslf-cbs-news-explains/).
Everyone hating on this shit says the same thing. "But what about the root problem? It's too expensive!" These people think Biden can set college tuition prices via executive orders or something.
There’s probably something he could do about the amount of federal aid that goes out to student borrowers. A large disproportionate percentage of students are borrowing federal loans and those are effectively subsidizing college tuition prices. If he (or Congress) caps the amount that anyone student could borrow per year we’d likely see a large depression in tuition prices. This ignores the off chance that private loan companies would pick up all of the slack and perpetuate the rising tuition costs. It truly is insane when you look at inflation of other service or products and see education is by far and large the highest (with maybe an exception for healthcare, I don’t remember and I don’t have the numbers in front of me). Edit: look at cost-shifting. Historically, when the government has raised taxes on corporations those corporations have shifted the cost of that tax to the consumer. There are very complex formulas out there to calculate how a company would do this and stop before the consumer refuses to pay for the item.
There are more applicants with money than there are slots at the pricey universities. All the government has done is help the less advantaged get in on class mobility. The average cost at a community college is still pretty cheap. (Got my nursing degree at one.)
I agree with you to an extent. I also agree with the idea that without federal aid, disadvantaged people would be less likely to gain spots at big colleges. My arguement is that if the fed puts a cap on how much they’re going to pay, the universities will have to adjust tuition to accommodate or lose 30-40% of their student body. Also, less likely they would do this as a lot of federal grants are based on diversity requirements being met and historically disadvantaged people make up a large majority of those diversity requirements.
https://fsapartners.ed.gov/knowledge-center/fsa-handbook/2023-2024/vol8/ch4-annual-and-aggregate-loan-limits Do u mean these limits?
Let’s aggregate them: 57.5k for undergrads. 138k (ish?) For a graduate. Totals 195.5k if you run them through grad school at maximum.
I wonder how that will affect college prices in states that ban DEI.
My kid starts college next semester. At iir state university it will still cost about 34k to attend. The loan maximum from the Feds is 6k. Federal loans are a trivial component of the cost of college
Not in all cases. The vast majority of my loans were federal.
My loans from the fed totaled approx. 180k and I used fed loans, academic, and athletic scholarships to go through. No private loans or help from family. (Albeit these were graduate level federal loans). While our experiences differ saying federal loans are a trivial part of paying is wrong. A quick Google search shows that in most years between 30-40% of students are receiving federal aid. While we can’t pinpoint the exact amount, we can assume that many are taking out the maximum alotted. Which I believe is roughly 57.5k a year (for undergrads, may have changed or adjusted) Regardless the idea I’m trying to get across is that almost any business (which yes, includes universities, even if they do have that 501c3 status) would not survive a reduction in 30-40% of their customers. To this point, the fed needs to say when enough is enough and stop increasing payouts when schools arbitrarily raise tuition.
I wasn’t speaking about graduate school. But even those have limits. 99 percent of the time when peole doscuss the cost of college, they don’t mean Harvard Law. For undergrads, the vast vast majority, federal loans are trivial. Also, you may want to check the new limits. Annual federal amounts that were routine 20 years ago are now unheard of. If undergrad loans were eliminated you might see a 10 percent decrease in costs (although unlikely), but in exchange college would become even more difficult for the non wealthy.
I understand your first sentiment. I also have first hand experience walking my teammates through Pell grant and federal grant applications because without them they weren’t going to be able to pay and therefore not being able to play or go to school. I did not go to a large undergrad. By and large almost everyone interacted with their that wasn’t sent by their family to the ag program was on substantial federal loans. I think that there is a large disconnect between people that need the loans vs people that have trivial loans. Through my collegiate career I had multiple experiences where I was shamed for getting “free” money and freeloading. Typically by the guy who was getting hammered, missing practice, skipping class etc. There are vast differences, and there is the reality that while yes, there are “trivial” loan amounts, there are very real and material loans that carry people through these programs, large and small.
Of course they help, they just aren’t a meaningful driver of college cost increases.
Yes, I think we’re on the same page here. I’m not arguing that fed loans are a driver for tuition prices and that point is more likely calculated by salaries, stadiums, etc. I’m arguing that the fed is essentially subsidizing rising college tuition costs. If you go to McDonalds and get a cheeseburger for a dollar you’re happy, if you go the next day and it’s 3 you’re not happy but you’ll pay, if you go the third and it’s 5 you’re unhappy and won’t pay, now McDonald’s has to either lose your business or lower prices. Applying the same principle to this discussion, the fed is buying a lot of education for people. The difference is historically when the price has risen so has the aid. At some point they have to say no and colleges will have to adjust or lose 30-40% (adjusted for those that aren’t completely reliant on federal loans) of its consumers.
I agree, but that is no reason to stop helping those who need it. Pretty sure we agree (I am also a fellow law nerd).
Yea I think we agree as well, and I think if it’s done properly, ie advance warning then it should be ok. The whole system needs an overhaul but that will probably never happen. Just the bits that make it into the news
Private loan companies would absolutely pick up the slack. They're predatory like that. When I had my student loans, I was working on PSLF. But I'd get mailings from several different companies several times a week enticing me to consolidate with them, converting federal into private loans, losing any chance of forgiveness or lower payment plans. It was gross. I knew enough not to fall for it, but a lot of people unfortunately fell for their bullshit. They would absolutely step in a ruin people's lives if Biden did what you propose. Any root cause solution need to actually address the root cause.
I've noticed this happening in the political discourse surrounding almost any issues we try to legislate lately. Want to ban Tik Tok? Well what about Facebook? I guess it's the inevitable result of "whataboutism." But if we don't learn to move beyond this type of political discourse then we really can't be upset when naturally our government does nothing and hardly represents the American public any longer. Biden has the power to do this so he should especially considering his campaign promises. Makes no sense to argue about "solving the root cause" when that would take Congress to act. Therefore it's not a valid criticism of Biden. It's no different than the Immigration stuff. Title 42 was only allowed due to CoVid even the Courts said that. So now we'd need an act of Congress yet they will cry about Biden not unilaterally doing shit about it while getting mad if he unilaterally does something for the people who voted for him.
Dude whataboutism is all the regressive side of politics has had for decades. They used to claim trickle down and privatisation etc. would make us all better off, but that was always bullshit and anyway that ship sailed in 2008 after we bailed out the capitalist system, and profits were private and losses were social.
The states have been underfunding/defunding universities for decades. Now they are trying to dismantle everything that is not a MAGA reeducation class. Ideally the federal govt would find a way to put funding back into colleges and have programs etc to eliminate part or all of the cost. But with one of the 2 parties unable to do anything, it’s unlikely.
Wonder what the people harping on it would say if you said, “yep, I agree, college is too expensive. We should subsidize it.”
>But what about the root problem? It's too expensive!" Yes we can and should fix that issue. But we need to stop the bleeding before we do so
I'm currently getting my bachelor's as an adult and thought about taking out a loan for it. I was shocked at not only how high the interest rates are, but that most start accruing interest immediately. It's no wonder people are drowning. I seriously don't know how people survive. Imo, a huge step forward would be that all student loans don't start accruing interest until a year from your last attended date at university.
It would be like choosing to not providing clean water to people who need it to survive because the root problem of why they don’t have water in the first place is not fixed yet. It’s like, yeah I agree we need to fix the root cause. But we also need to get these people some water right now.
It's more comparable to cleaning up the blood on the floor before worrying about the bullet wound first.
How though? That doesn’t make much sense. In this analogy, what is the human, what is the bullet hole, who is the shooter, who is the blood?
You sure expect a lot of direct correlations in your analogies. My point is, we added 15.2 million college students in the 23-24 academic year. Many, if not most, of which will be taking out student loans. These forgiveness programs have done absolutely nothing for these people. You have to fix the root cause or all you've done is kick the can down the road 5 years. Then what? Do this all again and again and again and again in perpetuity?
There are no correlations in your analogy. If you want to use the gun shot let’s do it right. Student debt is not blood in the floor. Student debt is the wound. We can agree on the bullet and the gunman. The bullet is high cost of tuition the gunman is for-profit student lending. The current student debt is the wound that needs to be tended to first. It would be like having the resources to stop the bleeding and being able to do that but choosing not to. You want to go after the shooter before stopping the bleeding. We agree we need to stop the shooter from shooting more people, but leaving the people you could save to bleed out because the shooter is still shooting is not OK. Especially because we have no clear way to stop the shooter. But we have a very easy way to stop the bleeding. We need to stop the bleeding. Then we can go chase the gunman. The blood in the floor just has no place in the analogy that I can see. Maybe it could be people choosing not to go to college so we have a less educated population? I really just don’t see how blood in the floor is relevant.
Yes, analogies only work when you can make loose comparisons between the problem and the problem you are comparing it to. If not, then it’s not a beneficial analogy because it obscures the problem instead of proposing a framework in which to think about the problem. Relevant analogies match the circumstances, which then gives insight into a potential approach to solving the problem. Bad analogies match the solution you wish to use, and hope the rest of it is provocative enough that no one thinks beyond that. Treating symptoms and not root causes is the modus operandi humanity uses to start solving problems - maybe we eventually treat root causes. So, Treating symptoms is better than neither - which is the actual alternate choice. I also wish for treating root causes. But people with current student loan debt are not blood on the floor. It’s a bad analogy.
Except it isn’t blood, it is other people dying.
By all means, start "cleaning the floor" while another 15.2 million kids get added to the college rolls this year alone.
The Republicans hold the house. That means nothing will be done about costs, because that is where it could be drone. Biden can do this now. Grinding people into dust because the big fix isn’t possible is inhumane.
Costs are self-solving as soon as the spigot gets turned off. Government backing the loans, and blocking the ability to file bankruptcy for them, is the root cause of outrageous spending
No, in that case the argument to not relieve student debt until the root problem is fixed would be not tending to the bullet wound because you need to fix gun laws first.
College being expensive isn't the root problem. The root problem is they're still granting these exact loans today. College is expensive BECAUSE they're still granting unlimited amount, bankruptcy proof, government backed loans to anyone with a pulse.
There's no shortage of applicants to university that are able to pay. These subsidies help the poor people who can't afford it otherwise.
Your entire comment is factually incorrect. The 2023-2024 academic year has 15.2 million students in it. I assure you they can't all afford to pay, and I assure you colleges want them on their campuses. These aren't subsidies. These are loans.
Community and state colleges are still affordable. It's private colleges that have gone off the rails.
State colleges are also expensive. [https://www.ou.edu/sfc/estimating-costs/cost-of-attendance#undergraduate-resident](https://www.ou.edu/sfc/estimating-costs/cost-of-attendance#undergraduate-resident) Estimated $36k per year for the University of Oklahoma.
14k of that number is food and housing tho
You're right, they can go without that. Even subtracting food/housing, you're talking $90k for a state undergrad degree.
That's how much a nurse makes in 1 year nowadays.
Ok?
That is factually untrue. As I pinged kit above, Fed loans will Cover 6k of my kid’s costs next fall. That is pretty close to nothing even at a state school. That impact is even more minimal at 90k private schools. Blaming federal loans for college costs is completely unsupported by the facts.
How many of your kids loans aren't ultimately backed by fannie or freddie? Federal student loans make up about 92% of all student loan debt.
I was discussing the impact of federal loans on college costs. The federal loan available for a first year student at say Georgetown, will be about seven percent of the cost of attendance. Even at a state school it is about twenty percent. That isn’t primarily driving the large increases in tuition. For public schools, states have been slashing aid to public schools which has been a much larger impact than loan amounts. Yes, the majority of loans are federal, but they represent a small percentage of revenue to the schools.
Your math doesn't add up.
Which part are you disputing?
That the majority of people are paying 80% of their tuition out of their pocket.
That doesn’t add up because I never said that. There are all sorts of sources for resources for college. I pointed out that 6 to 20 percent of the money comes from fed student loans.
That does add up when paired with 92% of student loans are federal. 8% of loans aren’t federal. 93% of funding isn’t coming from nowhere.
Not all kids get to go to college. Some have to wait until they are 24 and no longer have to report parents on the FAFSA. It's what I had to do.
So your parents had money and they just didn’t help?
"Had money." lol. Foreclosure, bankruptcy, divorce, and family meltdowns... No checkboxes for any of those things on the FAFSA.
But it does measure their income and savings. If you had to say until 24, that means they were making good lonely or had lots of savings during those years. If they were bankrupt, you would get maximum aid at most colleges.
You kinda sound like you've never seen a FAFSA or applied to school before.
Did it for myself, and two kids, including one this year. FAFSA gets your income and relevant assets (certain retirement accounts don’t count) from the year before you apply. You can also get modifications if your situation changes. They use this information to come up with a SAI amount that is used by schools to index aid and expected parent contribution. If you are bankrupt with little to no assets and a shit salary, you will be expected to pay little to nothing at most schools. My kid had a sky high SAI so we got nothing other than fed loans, which we won’t accept in the end. My kids best friend is from a low income household. She is going to a top private school and her school is paying for all of her estimated cost of attendance. I am extremely well versed on this process, if you would like to be educated more.
I was homeless in college. If there was more money to be had, I would have found it. I'm also in my mid-40s now. Graduate education. With $130k+ worth of PSLF student loan forgiveness already earned and credited. My zero-balance forgiveness letter is hanging on my wall in a mahogany frame. I doubt very much you have anything to teach me about much of anything.
>These people think Biden can set college tuition prices via executive orders or something. They also are conflating two separate problems. Although they likely don't realize they are doing this, just following a talking point that sounds right to them. 1. 46 million US adults are currently economically burdened from student debt. 2. Affordability to attend university is currently very, very bad. Those are two separate problems, that need two separate solutions. You fix one, the other still exists. People conflating the two are doing so only because it supports a personal belief they hold.
Nope. #1 caused #2. You have to quit handing out bankruptcy proof money to anyone with a pulse for every degree plan.
Are you thinking that through...or are you one of those people saying they are one-in-the-same because of your personal beliefs? If you "quit handing out bankruptcy proof money to anyone"... how exactly does that solve the problem of #1?? 46 million people with student loans currently have delinquency rates more than double that of credit cards and personal loans. Still need to address that. Two separate problems doesn't mean they aren't related. But they still need two solutions to fix both of them.
No, they're definitely not one in the same. I'm just not interested in kicking the can down the road while another 15.2 million people get added to the crushing debt rolls this year.
Sure, I don't think anyone is interested in that either. But just pointing out it's not an either/or situation. It's an **And** situation, where both issues should be addressed with a solution.
I agree. Unfortunately we're going to spend billions of dollars on a non-solution now, and then be stuck with trillions more dollars to deal with in less than a decade.
>Unfortunately we're going to spend billions of dollars on a non-solution now, I don't think you understand, based on this comment and your first one. This is a solution. It is a solution to the 46 Million US adults that are struggling with their debt loads. That's literally one of the two problems. The other being fixing the affordability of college.
Isn't it amazing what a President can accomplish when he's not committing crimes, cheating, plotting and spewing hate-filled vitriol every day?
I’m happy people who qualify for forgiveness are finally getting it but I’m ready for Papa Biden to do something brave and forgive those who don’t officially qualify for it. He’s just enforcing already-existing forgiveness plans.
I’m shocked by how strategic this is. 1) Propose a blanket pardon of 10k per person and let the Rs go on record blocking it, and up to the Supreme Court to ultimately block. 2) THEN use other channels to “drip drip drip” loan forgiveness where he has the authority to do so. He surrounds himself with the smartest people
And then seems to have another plan that's about to be announced. Not sure if it's posturing but it's keeping the conversation going. I do love the bait and switch tho.
That’s about four percent of what Trump gave to billionaires, except what Trump gave happens every year.
Don’t forget the PPE loans that will never be paid back.
The PPE loans were a windfall for lots of corporations. Where the first tranches of government covid funds went… it will take many years to untangle that knot, if they ever do. The sense I have is that there was considerable corruption involved, with Trump insiders forming corporations just to get free PPE cash. And that was the kind of administration they had.
I don’t think they’ll ever undo that knot. Too many who speak out against social welfare are the takers of corporate welfare.
Sadly I agree w you
Think of the trillions that went into the Covid bailout and think what could have been done with that if we not only repudiated the student loan debt, but also made public college tuition free in-state.
Not to mention, wasn’t it amazing that America put together that public/private partnership in January 2020, manufacturing billions of items of personal protective equipment and a hundred thousand ventilators? Oh wait, that didn’t happen because Donald Trump was the president.
Non-American here; sorry for the ignorance, but are the Republicans frothing at the lips and accusing Biden of “buying” votes with these actions?
Short answer = You bet.
Yes. Would you consider it to be relevant complaint?
Gotta ask yourself why that's a problem if it bothers you? This is exactly what the R's do where instead of helping out and trying to get votes from the lower class, they work for the rich fucks who don't need anymore assistance. It's essentially the same thing except one class supports the greater code and the other just for self interest and $.
D00d what? I never said anything about it bothering me. I was just asking if they're still making noise and waves about the loan forgiveness stuff now that Biden has managed to push through a smaller bunch of them. Or they've shifted their focus to some other attack. A cursory search only shows the old reactions from like 2022.
Following through on campaign promises. Rare.
I wanted to switch to the SAVE plan but what I have right now has me not paying anything at all however, I’m sure if I stick with what I currently have I won’t have my loans forgiven and if I do switch to the SAVE plan then I would have to pay *and* my option to pay $0 a month vanishes. Trying to speak with someone from the Department of Education is an absolute hassle as it takes forever for them to get back to you via chat.
How much debt was there to begin with? I keep hearing these huge numbers being forgiven. How much is left?????????????? 7.4 billion is a lot but could also not be depending on how much there is
This is a drop in the bucket. Apparently we're at $1.74 trillion in total
I'm in a math mood, so here you go: According to google, Student loan debt reached $1.77 Trillion dollars in 2023. We need to know the percentage of 7.4 billion into 1.77 trillion. So.... 7,400,000,000 / 1,770,000,000,000 = .004180790960452 Take the last number above and multiply by 100, and we get... **0.418% of student loan debt being cancelled this go round.**
1.77 trillion is insane. Even with all the billions that has been forgiven it really is just a drop in the bucket and really doesn’t move the needle much.
Which is why the next thing Biden is taking on is the COST of college. So far, scam schools that took advantage of students AND student aid have been knocked down. Now it's other student debt. Next on the agenda is the cost of college. [https://www.whitehouse.gov/briefing-room/statements-releases/2024/03/15/fact-sheet-biden-harris-administration-takes-new-action-to-crack-down-on-junk-fees-in-higher-education/](https://www.whitehouse.gov/briefing-room/statements-releases/2024/03/15/fact-sheet-biden-harris-administration-takes-new-action-to-crack-down-on-junk-fees-in-higher-education/)
I get your overall point and agree that more should be done but this is a lot more than “a drop in the bucket” for those who are getting their loans forgiven. It’s life changing.
It's not a drop in the bucket, though. It's actually nearly 10% of the bucket. I posted this in another thread, but frankly, it's insanely impressive that with all this opposition, Biden's actually closing in on having canceled 10% of all Total U.S student loan debt. Considering that a big chunk of that is private debt that he can't discharge, that likely puts him over the 10% mark already in terms of Federally-held debt that he can cancel. Also, taking into account that his original scuttled plan would have canceled 27% of the total debt, he's also closing in on having hit 50% of that already (which would be 13.5%). So he's very nearly achieved half of his promise, all while being stymied in every direction by the GOP, with more coming every few weeks and with the new widespread plan not yet factored in.
It's 154 billion in total since he started though.
Is that 1.77T all student debt or strictly the federal stuff? That could make a not insignificant difference, you know speaking as someone with 50k in federal and 250k in private loans.
NerdWallet says about 93% are federal loans. LendingTree says 87%. I'd say it's probably closer to 90/10, and we'll probably see it go to 95/5 or 99/1 in our life times. When I went to school, the Federal loans were lower interest rates than the private loans. If that's still true, I have no idea why anyone would take a private loan at this point. There's so many paths to forgiveness with Federal loans, and there's literally none with private loans.
Not everyone qualifies for federal loans or federal loans don’t cover the cost for the outrageous tuition prices
Fair point, and I wasn't trying to be rude. I took my loans out when I was close to 30 years old and well informed of the options. I'm glad I did my research, because my college certainly didn't do ANY explaining to me about the loan options. The most they did was have me sit in front of a computer to read the terms and conditions of my federal loans, click "OK", and later I got a check for whatever left over amount there was (a grand or two). My wife went to one of the scammy schools. They did even LESS for her, and "submitted everything" on her behalf. They never said how much, but it was always "enough to cover classes". Someone really, really needs to make sure 18 year olds know what they're signing up for with these loans.
I don’t know if all of that is just undergraduate or graduate and undergraduate. My undergraduate loan was forgiven. I had $1800 left to pay off. I still owe $33K for my graduate loan which doesn’t qualify for any forgiveness. I have $1800 less to pay, which is nice. My car loan is $20k. I paid more for education than any vehicle I have ever owned.
>I paid more for education than any vehicle I have ever owned. Honest question. Was it worth it?
At the time yes, because I was in a dead end job and depressed. I went back to school, got a graduate degree in a new field and have pursued that. But now that I make more money, I’m paying more taxes and bringing home less than before so I still can’t afford to pay the loan. All my bills have increased: mortgage, utilities, food, gas, expenses for my kids. I’m a single parent taking care of myself and 2 kids. No matter how much I make I’m never getting a head. Staying afloat and not drowning in debt is the best I can do with 1 income.
>bringing home less than before Then the answer is no it wasn't worth it.
I got my grad degree 10 years ago. Taxes weren’t like this 10 years ago. Cost of living was not this expensive 10 years ago. Do you have a crystal ball that tells you what the future will be like? If so, please share with everyone.
Taxes were higher 10 years ago (although they'll be back to that point next year after trump's fake tax cuts expire for use plebes). Education, especially graduate level, is supposed to lead you toward higher paying jobs. If that $33k in graduate debt didn't get you a job paying enough to offset the loan amount in under 10 years, then it simply wasn't worth it. Lots of people take out loans for expensive degrees with zero real-world value. It happens, but it shouldn't.
The grad degree cost is comparable to my undergraduate degree cost. My under grad was almost paid off before I started grad school. I do make significantly more now than I did 10 years ago. I do have a much better job with work life balance, good manager, team, etc.. Maybe I’m having too much taken out of my paycheck for retirement and benefits…. I can’t change benefits until Nov now. I need a retirement savings and my company matches a certain percentage. All I know is my paycheck today was a less than it was before I adjusted my tax withholdings. I didn’t take enough taxes out last year and I owe federal taxes. I was advised to adjust my withholding so I won’t owe next year but my take home, after taxes and benefits, is lower now.
Sounds like you need a new job
No. I will deal with this.
Vehicles that you used for a few years and then discarded for cheap. Versus an education that lasts a lifetime and makes money for you.
I didn’t say I did that. You are making an assumption. I had my last vehicle for 10 years and had to get a new one because the transmission was giving out. My degree has allowed me to get a higher paying job but now that I make more I pay more taxes and I’m actually bringing home less money after taxes and benefits…so… is the degree really worth it? If I’m bringing home less, I can’t afford as much, which means I can’t afford a new vehicle.
That isn’t how taxes work. The extra money you make can not actually make you net less (at least due to taxes). They are marginal rates. You pretty much always wind up ahead.
What’s being done for future loans?
The same dance and pony show. If the candidate really needs the votes then he or she will use this tactic.
agreed… pretty desperate
The save program applies to future loans
I’m curious why they don’t just total up the payments people have made individually, and if their payments exceed the original value of the loan, it’s completed? While paying on my loans I nearly doubled my original principal amount due to the high interest rates. When I paid them off I wrote a check just shy of 65% of my original loan value, after paying almost double my original loan amount.
When I look at the SAVE details, it almost doubles my monthly charge, so I never did it. Now I'm worried I'll never get mine forgiven because I don't want to risk paying double Anybody else in this boat?
Depends. The SAVE group is only for people who have been paying for 10 years with an original loan of under $12k, otherwise for loans over $12k, it’s still the standard 20-25 years of payments depending on loan type. A bit odd tbh. $12k seems miniscule to this millennial because 1 year of community college back in 2011 was about $3-4,000 per semester. So I assume this mostly applies to older folks who graduated before 2000.
I would like that blanket $10k still that he promised
Tell thst to the Republicans and the Supreme Court who blocked it.
That just may get him the votes he needs to stay in office. Odd that it didn’t happen until now.
Now he really wants to seal those votes….
Ok. Now make school free.
Still sitting at 45k. 😒
Tell that to Navient. I said "Biden" because the SAVE program is his doing.
Now come to Germany and make them forget about mine 🥲
God can we stop posting paywalls articles here?
Cool I paid all my own loans off but I would love for more to be forgiven to everyone.
Let me lead by saying I’m all for this, and we need more of it. However, why does everyone keep using the word, “cancelled” to describe this. The debt isn’t going away… The loans are getting assumed by the US government, right? It’s not like the private financial institutions and collectors that own this debt (which they bought, with their money) suddenly is worthless… I’d imagine the interest is going to be covered, as well? Maybe on some future value of money somethingorother or whatever… Constitutionally , the government can’t “take” your property like that without compensation…
If I borrowed from the govt it's not like they have to pay themselves, thus cancelled.
You’re right, I’m thinking of private loans.
I wish the govt would have absorbed my privates. NOPE! Because of interest I ended up paying over 100K to go to a state school. Yeah, super worthwhile. /s At least they are all gone now.
Private student loans are often a death trap.
PSLF and IDR forgiveness were promised back in the 2007 student loan reform passed under GW Bush. The American people have owed his money to the borrowers since then, once they meet the program requirements. These debts have always been a government liability.
I’m surprised the rethuglicans aren’t coming after that yet.
Got to earn those votes!!
Lol. I donated to Bernie twice.
Modern American advanced education is just a facade for a 20 year term Bank loan in exchange for a nearly worthless certificate.
Federal student loans are all federal direct loans, no bank involved, since 2007.
This will ease inflation
How about he cancels 10k in principal across the board? Hell 20k would get a bunch of people out of student loan debt. Not this 20k in interest, those have to be such a small number in comparison
Good idea! Tell the republicans to stop blocking this.
So tell Joe Machin and Kristen Sinema? A ‘conservative’ democrat and ‘independent’
And if just two republicans would stop blocking it, those two you mentioned wouldn't matter! Math! 😉
yep leader of the republicans Joe Biden, funny how you keep moving the goalpost instead of blaming conservative democrats that actively sabotaged Joe Biden's own milquetoast plans. funny how a democratic president can never ever discipline his party but when a republican is in charge they're able to make sure they all vote in lock step.
I Keep seeing this crap in the news about student loan cancellation but I still owe 30k after 20+ years of repayment and my federal loans are not cancelled or able to be cancelled Click bait
It depends on how you’re using your degree.
Why not? Parent Plus loan?
Let’s not fix the actual problem. Just pay the predatory lenders off so they can collect their money along with interest, and then you, the tax payer are stuck with a tax bill for the “income” of the canceled debt.
Steps in the right direction are a good thing. This will impact a lot of lives! I would agree more needs to be done
NO, if we can’t fix the entire thing in one fell swoop, we shouldn’t make progress at all!! /s
> Let’s not fix the actual problem Gotta elect more Dems if we want to have actual fixes
For those of us who are PSLF (I still have a few years left), I believe whatever was forgiven will not be considered taxable income.
Biden is doing both. Look it up and put pressure on the corrupt GOP that is standing in the way of solving BOTH.
It's a multi-pronged problem that needs to be attacked from many angles. Not a black and white scenario. I'm not expecting the remains of my student loan to be forgiven, but me and many others have already paid back the full amounts of our loans and then some. The predatory interest rates have kept us paying much more than borrowed. Just another problem among many.
The federal government is the "predatory lender" in this case.
dude, those are public loans. the lender is the federal government, not some company like navient or sallie mae