Student debt

I am mixed about it.... I do support it because it is helping my DD, so it's a pretty selfish view. I do feel for those who have had to pay it all back. It doesn't seem fair. The small loan I had I paid off myself years and years ago. But it is what it is at this point I guess.

 tuition costs are up there and if you're doing a full load or more, its hard to work to have some living expense money, so I'm all for some help there.
I read that they plan to tweek the process for future loan forgiveness and reading that, I wasn't 100% on board with, but I don't think anything will be perfect.

I think there should be nominal or no interest charged on the loans

I took out loans and paid them back; still, I'm not begrudging anyone who benefits from loan forgiveness. I think tuition was about $6k a year when I was in college - students have to pay many times that today.

Our country needs to do something to make college more affordable to all. I know someone who is four years OLDER than me, went to the same school, and is still paying for student loans. Maybe some of that is due to money mismanagement, or maybe he got larger loans than I did, I don't know - it's just baffling to me that a 58 year old is still paying for student loans.

Having paid over $200k in medical debt, I wish there were forgiveness programs for other families. Would I have loved to have help? Hell yeah.

But just because I had to suffer for years to pay it off doesn't make it fair for another family to struggle to make ends meet while paying back medical debt.

It isn't a title for tat situation.

My tuition was $600-800 a quarter at my CSU in the mid 90s to early 2000s.

Since then it now costs almost $7000 for undergrad. That is how much tuition went up. That is $17-21,000 a year without books and other fees.

This. All of this.

Our tax money has been going to the 1% of the US for years. Decades.

Our money goes to the ultra rich so they can buy huge boats and get them out of debt.

There is more wrong with that then helping out those 12 or 14% that have federal loans.

I really, really wish forgiveness wasn't happening (even though I'll benefit) and instead there was a broader discussion about student loans. I would like to see zero percent interest. I don't understand why the government needs to profit in excess of 7-8% on a student loan. The interest rate is double my house. I would also like to see income based repayments for everyone. *Not* my husband's income, my income alone. And not 10%. 10% is ridiculous. But I'd like to see it automatic like income tax and withdrawn straight out of your paycheck. When your income goes up, your payment goes up accordingly. My loans have a ten year repayment period, why? Why can't it take me 20 years at a reduced rate and zero interest? Why the arbitrary limit.

There are a whole lot of things we could do here to make the whole system fairer. The $10k forgiveness is putting a band aid on a knife wound. Just like the stupid $600 extra on unemployment during COVID was putting a bandaid on the unemployment system that was already broken and should have been fixed after the last recession.

I'm tired of our legislators not doing anything to reform these programs and then suddenly we'll just throw something at the wall in a crisis. What's amazing to me is that every person who I discuss this with is like gee, you really have some good suggestions. Not a single person I've discussed my ideas with has been as polarizing as forgiveness. Yet, you mean to tell me a legislator can't come up with a plan like this?

Yes, I support it. In Europe, it’s the standard. College costs are often at least partially covered. We had a discussion in my French class last year about what Americans pay for college tuition. There were Italians, Polish, Turkish, Spanish, Czech Republic and Estonia. All had programs for full or partial tuition and just couldn’t understand the American system. And then we started talking about healthcare…

I’d like to see the program expand into fields where we need more skilled workers. If a career field is needed for low income areas, low manned fields, infrastructure support, I think those students should be given more loan forgiveness. Give students a chance to “pay it back” in those low manned areas and support those trying to better themselves.

My brother went to law school, but ended up being a lawyer for only a minute. He had a ton of student debt. He teaches now, in an underserved (aka poor) area, and had a nice chunk of student debt forgiven because of where he works. I like the idea that forgiveness is tied to this type of work.
I agree with partial forgiveness - as choices were made - and I think people need to live with at least some of their decisions. But many more/different avenues for forgiveness should be granted.
My son decided to go the Community college route, and that's his decision. He will likely end up going to a state school nearby - to ensure a reduced debt load (again, choices . . . ). Will he have a kickass experience? No. Will he get a degree? sure.

It’s not all debt, it’s some and yes I support it. Even though I paid off my own debt back in the day and we don’t qualify for it now.

I think the argument that we shouldn’t do it now because it’s unfair to those who have already paid off their debt is hogwash. Life is always evolving and there will always be new advantages that weren’t available previously. That doesn’t mean we don’t take advantage of an opportunity to do better.

I also support broader reforms in education costs and funding.

It could be due to a lot of things.  I am 47 and finished my master's degree in 2002.  I feel like I haven't even paid off more than the interest.  I am not in a high income field and don't have a lot of extra money each month to pay more than the minimum.  DH makes even less money than I do and also has student loans.  Some people have higher paying jobs, more help from family, spouse with higher pay, different family size, etc.  

I am in favor of it, as someone who has paid off her loans. And I can be in favor of it and also think we need to rethink how we find colleges and college education in the first place. States have cut funding to state schools, and the federal government shifted from grants to loans for need-based assistance -- we are asking people to shoulder much more of the burden themselves.

Well, after reading the details on Whitehouse.gov, I have to point out that this is no carte blanche pronouncement by any means. My takeaway is that monthly payments are reduced, full repayment is now on the horizon giving borrowers hope for the future, and they still even get a few more months to start planning for when their student loan payments resume in January.

On the House front, Nancy Pelosi is jumping up and down saying President Biden has no authority to forgive debt.

We'll see I guess