Anna Bain is sophomore at MU majoring in strategic communications. She is an opinion columnist.
President Joe Biden recently announced a three-part student loan relief plan that would cancel $10,000 of student debt for low income and middle income families. His relief plan is more than fair due to today’s soaring costs of college.
Student loan debt is a financial burden for far too many families in the U.S. We were taught that the golden ticket to a successful life was to go to college, but that has since become inaccessible because of its egregious cost.
Research published by College Board shows that tuition for both private and public universities have doubled since 1990. According to whitehouse.gov, about one-third of those who take out student loans to pay for tuition don’t finish with a degree. These individuals are then unqualified for a position that would pay them enough to pay back their loans.
In order to pay off student loans, one has to use their degree to qualify for a job that earns them enough to do so. The problem here is that when impoverished children want to go to college, they cannot afford to take out the loans to do so. Furthermore, it is likely that their parents ran into the same issue, and one of the reasons these children were impoverished to begin with is because their parents could not qualify for a well-paying job. This directly juxtaposes the reality of wealthy families, resulting in a cycle of classist discrimination that is both systemic and generational.
High tuition costs are commonly excused by the public as a requirement of going to college; however, higher education was never meant to cost much at all. In fact, until the mid-1960s, many colleges and public universities were free. The idea of costly higher education began in 1966 during former President Ronald Reagan’s governance of California. During his governance, he proposed that tuition costs should be put in place to “get rid of undesirables”. So, while college tuition is a modern struggle for many, it was only ever meant as a device to deter anyone who was not a wealthy white man from seeking higher education.
Being able to afford paying off student loans is a privilege unfeasible for many. For instance, teachers work tirelessly to educate our youth yet do not make enough to pay off their student loans without accumulating copious amounts of interest.
Some Americans feel that this debt relief plan is unfair to people who have already worked hard to pay their loans off. Others say this plan is unfair because college is optional, and people made the conscious decision to take out these loans with the knowledge they would have to pay them back.
Working hard to pay off your loans is an attainable goal if you earned a degree that places you in a well-paying position. However, if your degree does not place you in a well-paying position or the job placement rate in your field is not ideal, then you cannot simply “work harder” to get your loans paid off.
The idea that people who cannot afford college should not go to college supports the belief that the lower class does not deserve higher education solely because they are lower class.
The U.S. has a long and painful history of taking something every human being should have access to and putting miles of red tape around it. This loan forgiveness plan is one small dent in that red tape around higher education, and it’s long overdue.
Edited by Ezra Bitterman | Ebitterman@themaneater.com
Copy Editor — Emily Rutledge | Erutledge@themaneater.com
Copy Editor — Shirin Xavier
