Forgiveness is just a start on student loan debt

Maybe call it a down payment.

Of course, so many other terms - life-saving, unjust, communist, to name a few - have been used to describe President Joe Biden's announcement that the government will forgive up to $20,000 in your personal student loans. Not surprisingly, the blowback was swift and fierce, especially from the political right.

"I appreciate that many young people and their families are struggling with the burden of student loan debt," Congressman Mike Bost said in a statement. "But there are many hardworking Americans who attended a trade school, work in the service industry, run a small business, or stayed home to raise a family who are struggling too. It is unfair to make them shoulder the cost for those who decided to attend college. We must continue working to find solutions that make college more affordable and accessible, but President Biden's plan is nothing more than a taxpayer giveaway to score political points."

Congresswoman Mary Miller called Biden's plan "a $300 billion taxpayer-funded bailout for leftist colleges and universities," adding that the institutions that prey upon students and brainwash them into becoming "foot soldiers in the Marxist revolution destroying America."

"The blue-collar working class is now saddled with the cost of paying off 'elite' institutions with billion dollar endowments," Miller said in her own statement. "They defrauded young people by exaggerating their future earning power that would enable them to pay back those loans."

Should taxpayers have to foot the bill for individual student debt? It's a question open for fair debate. Is it really class warfare, as Miller so bombastically suggests? I, like you, am young enough to recall bailing out the bankers and the car makers. We can discuss the merits or perils of government "bailouts," but maybe this one isn't where we should be drawing the line.

What can hardly be debated at all is that the student debt industry has become an outsized, interest-accumulating beast, and even the most responsible borrowers have had no control over how their loans have been sold and repackaged over the years. Reports are common of debts only growing over time as interest continues to mount.

And then there's the cost of college itself. SIU Carbondale Chancellor Austin Lane addressed this in his own statement, adding that the university has worked to keep tuition flat for 10 consecutive semesters. He added that more than 90 percent of undergraduates receive some form of financial assistance to further reduce costs.

"As a university with a Carnegie Classification of high research activity we provide a significant return on investment," Lane said. "We at SIU Carbondale recognize the importance of completing that degree and helping our student population overcome whatever academic or financial barriers may stand in the way."

Some form of relief for borrowers is not unreasonable or even unprecedented, but if our representatives fail to address any of these issues, they do nothing to fix the problem for future generations. An education remains one of the only things you can acquire that no one can take away. If we don't do more, these costs will only continue to rise. At best, this bailout to past borrowers is a good-hearted down payment. Now, for once, let's hope interest increases.