Student loan crisis stems from long war on higher ed
By David A. Love / Special To The Washington Post
The U.S. Supreme Court has decided to hear two legal challenges brought by six Republican-led states and two student loan debtors to President Biden’s $400 billion debt-relief plan, which promises to provide as much as $20,000 in forgiveness to more than 40 million Americans with federal college loans. The program has been placed on hold in light of these cases, causing Biden to extend the pandemic-era pause on federal student loan repayments through June 2023.
The United States is an outlier in terms of its prohibitively large student debt, which stands at $1.75 trillion and amounts to roughly 7.5 percent of the country’s gross domestic product, and exorbitant college costs. Indeed, other countries such as France and Germany offer low-cost tuition, and in countries including Finland, Brazil, Norway and Panama, there is no tuition at all. But education did not always come at such a high cost in America, where public education was once treated as a public good.
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Free and low-cost college became the norm when President Abraham Lincoln signed the Morrill Act of 1862, which provided land grants for states to establish public colleges and universities. In the 20th century, the federal government displayed its commitment to expanding educational opportunity with the Servicemen’s Readjustment Act of 1944, also known as the GI Bill, which covered tuition and expenses for veterans attending college or trade school. In the postwar era, college enrollment soared thanks to the advent of federal student grants and loans through the 1958 National Defense Education Act, and the expansion of federal financial aid and work-study programs for low-income students with the 1965 Higher Education Act.
Political support for such policies began to change during the 1960s as the civil rights movement expanded to college campuses. Student activists demanded more equitable campus environments and increased admissions for students of color. Universities developed affirmative action policies to diversify and transform their overwhelmingly white student bodies. Conservatives responded by cutting funds for public education and advancing the idea that not everyone — particularly working-class and low-income people— should have access to college.
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https://www.heraldnet.com/opinion/comment-student-loan-crisis-stems-from-long-war-on-higher-ed/
= new reply since forum marked as read
Why not cross check against voter registration and only give it to Democrats ?
Do you think the executive branch could issue an EO that residents of red states have to pay higher federal income tax rates, or that SS checks are 50 % bigger for people living in blue states?
