September 29, 2022
Student Debt Cancellation Will Help Rural Communities Too
By Lisa Herforth-Hebbert
Critics of Biden’s forgiveness plan falsely call it a wealth transfer to the “urban elite.” In 2020, nearly 6.5 million rural Americans owed an average of $35,000 in student loan debt.
By Reed Cleland
Last month, President Biden announced his plan to erase $10,000 in student debt for borrowers who earn less than $125,000 per year, with an additional $10,000 for Pell Grant recipients, a form of aid awarded to low-income families with exceptional financial need.
Student debt cancellation is perhaps the greatest acknowledgment from the federal government in decades that every American citizen is worthy of a college education. Along with their monthly payments being cut in half and interest rates lowered, 20 million borrowers will have their remaining balance wiped out.
But if you listen to the conservative American Enterprise Institute, student loan cancellation is just “a massive wealth transfer from working class Americans to people who are the Democrat voter,” what they call “the urban elites.” That couldn’t be further from the truth.
The student debt crisis impacts more than 45 million Americans, disproportionately women and people of color. The Institute on Assets and Social Policy estimates that “20 years after starting school, the typical Black borrower owed about $17,500 more than their White peers.” Biden’s limited relief is also extremely targeted, with “nearly 90 percent of relief dollars [going] to those earning less than $75,000 a year.” Not very “elite.”
