Saturday, April 27, 2024 | 2 a.m.
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I am one of many in this country with student loan debt, and I am able to make payments that are calculated at 10% of my net income, which is manageable.
LZ Granderson’s April 15 column, “Forgiving loans is the least we can do,” claims there are many situations where people — taxpayers — pay for many benefits they will never use, so that makes it alright for taxpayers to fund the write-off of student debt for millions.
The problem is that taxpayers are already funding the write-off for millions because of the clause in our contracts that says after making those continuous minimal payments for 10, 20 or 25 years, they will be written off. It’s 10 years for those who chose public service work, such as teaching at a Title 1 school, and 20 or 25 years, depending on the start date, for everyone else. This current process is the reason there is $1.77 trillion in student loan debt.
There is an alternative that would reduce the deficit and benefit students. By retroactively lowering the interest rate, (currently 3.1-8.1%) to 1% to cover the cost of administering the loans, the deficit would shrink, loans would be reduced, and students would be more able and likely to pay off their loans. The deficit would shrink because the government would lower its expectation of future income rather than writing off unpaid loans.
In other words, it’d be a win for taxpayers and students.
