Students cheer as President Barack Obama delivers the commencement speech at Howard University graduation, May 7, 2016. (AP Photo/Jose Luis Magana, File)
Under pressure from congressional Democrats, the Biden administration is expected to announce today the cancellation of up to $10,000 in student loan debt for borrowers who earn less than $125,000 income. Student loan payments have been on pause during the pandemic until now.
President Joe Biden has been under pressure to forgive at least $50,000 — the threshold some experts say would help ease the disproportionate burden on Black borrowers. Today’s announcement won’t come close to that, Politico reported.
The current pause is about to expire on Aug. 31. Federal student debt now approaches $1.75 trillion with more than 45 million Americans owing money on student loans. About a third owe less than $10,000 and more than half owe less than $20,000, according to federal data. The average monthly student loan payment was $300 before the White House instituted a repayment moratorium.
Biden campaigned on a promise to cancel at least $10,000 of student debt per person. If he fulfills his promise, millions of borrowers will have their debts erased.
Biden’s reported plan to cancel $10,000 of student debt isn’t enough, according to the NAACP, which has called on the administration to cancel as much as $50,000 in student loans per borrower. Black Americans bear a disproportionate burden of student loan debt, according to NAACP President Derrick Johnson.
“$10,000 alone is meager, to say the least — it won’t address the magnitude of the problem,” Johnson said in an interview.
Four years after graduating, Black Americans have an average of about $53,000 in debt, almost double the $28,000 average of white Americans. They typically end up owing 6 percent more than they borrowed while white borrowers owe 10 percent less, Johnson wrote in a CNN opinion piece with co-author Wisdom Cole, NAACP national director of Youth & College.
“Canceling just $10,000 of debt is like pouring a bucket of ice water on a forest fire. It hardly achieves anything — only making a mere dent in the problem,” Johnson and Cole wrote
Community activist Ja’Mal Green, who is running for mayor of Chicago in 2023, is calling for Biden to cancel all student debt.
“Joe Biden doesn’t think that 45 million working Americans are worth more than a semester of college? Average out of state tuition is 27k per yr. We spend 800 BILLION a yr on military. Give billions in aid & hundreds of millions in tax breaks to the wealthy! #CancelAllStudentDebt” Green tweeted.
Nancy Cook, who works for Bloomberg News as a White correspondent, tweeted, “As Biden weighs a student debt decision, Penn Wharton Budget Model has released its analysis of student loan forgiveness, estimating it will cost bet. $300-$980 billion, w/majority of relief going toward borrowers in top 60% of earners.”
