Biden’s Newest Folly on Student Loan Forgiveness
Andrew Gillen
April 29, 2024
Immediately after the Supreme Court overturned his last big student loan forgiveness plan, President Biden announced a new effort that would rely on a different law, an effort that is now nearing completion. The administration has released the draft regulations that would waive accrued interest, forgive debt for borrowers that have repaid for 20 years (25 years if there is debt for graduate school), automatically enroll students in programs that would result in loan forgiveness, and waive debt for students that attended low‐quality institutions. The administration hopes to issue final regulations in a few months with a goal of forgiving debt this fall.
The administration estimates that 27.6 million borrowers (around 64 percent of all borrowers) would have some or all of their debt forgiven under the proposed regulations. Around 9 percent of all outstanding student loan debt would be forgiven, at a cost of $147.5 billion.
This plan suffers from several severe flaws.
