Former United States Secretary of Education John King has a bold proposal to accelerate the country’s economic recovery since Coronavirus pandemic and put millions of people on a better path to financial security – forgive all the $ 1.7 trillion they still owe on their student loans.
King, who served under President Barack Obama, told CBS News that the federal government paid about 80 percent of the cost of college to students through its Pell scholarship program in the 1980s. The government’s move in recent decades to reduce its investment in higher education has left many students deeply indebted, with today’s Skin program covering less than a third of the annual tuition of scholarship recipients.
“We have to make up for the political mistakes of the last 40 years by addressing the overwhelming burden of student debt that so many young people feel today and fixing the problem in the future by committing to a debt-free university in the United States,” King said.
More than 43 million Americans, nearly 13 percent of the U.S. population, have student debts, according to the Federal Reserve. Louis. The average borrower owes about $ 37,000.
Debt settlement often weighs heavily on borrowers for years, forcing them to postpone plans to buy a home, start a business or even have children, King said. Other prominent lawmakers, including Senators Elizabeth Warren and Chuck Schumer, have also urged the government to cancel student loans.
The White House, which dates back to 2020 under President Donald Trump, put an interest-free indulgence on student loan payments during the pandemic. As a result, as of March 2020, nearly 37 million borrowers have been exempt from making payments on their student loans, an estimated $ 195 billion in exempt payments, according to the New York Federal Reserve.
But tolerance ends on May 1 and many borrowers are worried about being able to resume payments.
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Current Secretary of Education Miguel Cardona told CBS Mornings last week that Biden administration officials talk internally about how to offer more relief for student debt.
“We’re definitely putting borrowers and students at the center of the talks from day one,” Cardona said. “In just one year, President Biden has already forgiven more than $ 17 billion.”
Besides, the Department of Education has it intensify efforts to cancel the debt for thousands of for-profit college alumni after tests showed their schools may have tricked them into lending.
It is not enough to cancel previous school loans, said King, who is now running for governor in Maryland. The U.S. government must also ensure that future college graduates do not end up with student debt, he said. Two ways to help this cause is to make the community college free and increase the amount each student receives in Pell scholarships, King said.
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