Image: Michael Burrell - Getty Images
Mortarboard and diploma
In a long-awaited announcement, President Biden and elected Democrats delivered on their political promises by forgiving $10,000 to $20,000 in student debt for tens of millions of Americans who have struggled for years to repay tens of thousands of dollars in loans they needed for higher education.
The ugliest sideshow to Biden’s welcome announcement has been the ridiculous and totally dishonest Republican attack on economic relief for millions of ordinary Americans as—get this—an enormous taxpayer giveaway to a wealthy, college-educated elite.
Republicans know exactly what enormous taxpayer giveaways to the wealthy look like and reducing student debt isn’t even close. The only major legislation Republicans passed during Donald Trump’s one-term presidency when they controlled both houses of Congress was a $2 trillion tax cut for millionaires, billionaires and corporations with table scraps going to most Americans.
That’s why Democratic lawmakers representing working class communities—White, Black or Brown—overwhelmingly support college assistance for constituents trying to improve their lives and incomes through education while Republicans representing more privileged communities see no need.
High Cost of Education
The Washington Post cited the conflicting responses by Wisconsin State Rep. David Bowen, a Democrat representing Milwaukee’s North Side and Shorewood, and State Rep. Barbara Dittrich, a Republican from Oconomowoc 35 miles away.
“With the cost of education being as high as it is right now, we have so many folks who have racked up debt, have strained their budgets to try to keep up with the costs of living, their plans for their families and futures,” Bowen said. “Overwhelmingly, this is a win … for working people.”
Dittrich wrote a caustic description on Twitter of Biden’s debt cancellation plan, airing some dirty family linen. She noted her two daughters had already paid off their student loans, but their brother would now be eligible to have $10,000 paid off by American taxpayers. “Sure. Sounds fair,” Dittrich snorted sarcastically, followed by an eye-rolling emoji. Love, mom.
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Actually, all those finally receiving reductions in their college debts are American taxpayers too. They’re just not used to receiving targeted benefits from their government the way wealthy political donors always have. Relieving massive college debt doesn’t just benefit the recipients. It benefits all of us. A college education remains one of the primary ways to move Americans out of poverty into the tax-paying middle class.
I know that’s true. My father died before I was old enough to remember him. My mother raised four boys in a small Indiana town of 3,000 on Social Security survivor’s benefits while working minimum wage jobs. The only way I had any hope of attending college was to become a top student. I was lucky enough to make it to Indiana University in the 1960s and I still believe that’s when the whole world opened up to me.
Limited Opportunities
I always thought I would go to college, but it almost didn’t happen. I was a top student, but I wasn’t the top student. That was my friend Bill. At commencement, he was the valedictorian and I was the salutatorian. But for our small class, there was only one scholarship that paid for four years of college. Because it was going to Bill, the school superintendent convinced the richest woman in town to create another full scholarship to be given annually and I was the first recipient.
Whenever I’ve told this story over the years, here’s the part that blows everyone’s mind. In the 1960s, a four-year college education at a major public university cost $1,000 a year. I can’t even imagine graduating from college today already saddled with tens of thousands of dollars in debt before starting my first job as a grown-up. The escalating costs of higher education in America today are unsustainable.
That’s not an argument against government reducing the costs of college for Americans to enter well-paid professional careers. It’s an argument for government continuing to do more to reduce the costs of higher education so all Americans have the same opportunities I’ve had throughout my life well beyond my small-town roots.
What Biden has already done is expected to wipe out college debt for a third of all borrowers and cut what’s owed by another 20% in half. That should just be the beginning of making college and other forms of advanced education more affordable for all Americans.
Despite widespread support in small towns and rural areas, Trump Republicans have never done anything to improve the lives of anyone living in those communities. Republicans simply feed their supporters’ anger and hatred for being left in a changing world by “educated elites.”
The best thing Republicans could do for their constituents would be to join Democrats in making higher education and the opportunities in life it offers available to every American just like they were for me in a small Republican town in Indiana.
