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      Biden isn’t serious about forgiving student debt. ‘Means-testing’ is a con | David Sirota

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      Biden isn’t serious about forgiving student debt. ‘Means-testing’ is a conDavid Sirota and Andrew PerezThe Biden administration’s proposal is cynicism masquerading as populism – and it will enrage everyone and hurt the Democrats’ electoral chances During the 2020 Democratic primary, Pete Buttigieg’s personal ambition led him to poison the conversation about education in America. Desperate for a contrast point with his rivals, the son of a private university professor aired ads blasting the idea of tuition-free college because he said it would make higher education “free even for the kids of millionaires.”The attack line, borrowed from former secretary of state Hillary Clinton, was cynicism masquerading as populism. It was an attempt to limit the financial and political benefits of a proposal to make college free. Worse, it was disguised as a brave stand against the oligarchs bankrolling Buttigieg’s campaign, even though it actually wasn’t – almost no rich scions would benefit from free college.Buttigieg and copycats like Amy Klobuchar were pushing a larger lie. Call it the means-testing con – the idea that social programs should not be universal, and should instead only be available to those who fall below a certain income level. It is a concept eroding national unity and being carried forward by wealthy pundits and a Democratic party that has discarded the lessons of its own universalist triumphs like social security, Medicare and the GI Bill.This week the Biden administration tore a page from Buttigieg’s book. The White House leaked that it is considering finally following through on Joe Biden’s promise to cancel some student debt – but not the $50,000 pushed by congressional Democrats, and only for those below an income threshold.In trial-ballooning the college debt relief proposal, the president is boosting the media-manufactured fiction that real, universal college debt relief would mostly help rich Ivy League kids – even though data from the Roosevelt Institute conclusively proves that canceling student debt “would provide more benefits to those with fewer economic resources and could play a critical role in addressing the racial wealth gap and building the Black middle class”.As the report points out: “People from wealthy backgrounds (and their parents) rarely use student loans to pay for college.”But setting aside how the media-driven discourse omits those inconvenient facts, what’s noteworthy here is the underlying principle.This latest discussion of means-testing follows Biden and congressional Democrats pushing to substantially limit eligibility for Covid-19 survival checks and the expanded child tax credit. Taken together, it suggests that Democrats’ zeal for means-testing is no anomaly – it is a deeply held ideology that is both dangerous for the party’s electoral prospects and for the country’s fraying social contract.The superficial appeal of means-testing is obvious: it promises to prevent giving even more public money to rich people who don’t need it.But in practice, means-testing is a way to take simple universal programs and make them complicated and inaccessible. Calculating exact income levels and then proving them for eligibility means reams of red tape for both the potential beneficiary and a government bureaucracy that must be created to process that paperwork.Data from the food stamp and Medicaid programs illustrate how means-testing creates brutal time and administrative barriers to benefits, which reduce payouts to eligible populations. In the case of means-testing student debt relief, those barriers may end up wholly excluding large swaths of working-class debtors.This is a feature, not a bug – it is means-testers’ unstated objective. They want to limit benefits for the working class, but not admit that’s their goal.Universal programs like social security and Medicare were what we once defined as “society” or “civilization”. They may be derided as “entitlements”, but the reason they have (so far) survived for so long is because their universality makes them wildly successful in their missions and more difficult to demonize. Their universality also precludes austerians from otherizing and disparaging the programs’ recipients.Means-testing destroys that potential unity. It may initially poll well, but it turns “entitlements” into complicated “welfare” programs only for certain groups, which then makes those programs less popular and makes the beneficiaries easy scapegoats for political opportunists. Think of Ronald Reagan’s “welfare queen” trope vilifying recipients of means-tested food stamps.Now sure, billionaires are eligible for social security and Medicare, and their kids are eligible for free K-12 education – and that aristocracy doesn’t need that help. But when those programs were created, we accepted that rich people being granted access to those programs along with everyone else was the relatively small price to pay for simplicity, universalism and the attendant national unity that comes with it.Not surprisingly, Democrats’ creation of popular universalist programs coincided with the most electorally successful era in the party’s history.Equally unsurprising: the shift to fake means-test populism has coincided with rising popular hatred of liberal technocrats and the Democratic party they control.What is surprising is that Republicans may be starting to understand all this better than Democrats.For instance, Donald Trump’s signature spending legislation offered direct, non-means-tested aid to small businesses during the pandemic. The former president touted a plan to just pay hospital bills for Covid patients who didn’t have coverage. The programs were hardly perfect, but they were straightforward, universal, relatively successful and extremely popular because they embodied a powerful principle: keep it simple, stupid.When it comes to student debt relief, there’s a rare chance for Democrats to also embrace simplicity – and prevent Republicans from outflanking them.More specifically, they can use the student debt crisis to finally return to their universalist roots – and they don’t have to skimp and provide merely $10,000 worth of relief.Biden could simply send out a one-page letter to every student borrower telling them that their federal student debt is now $0.Yes, Republican lawmakers would try to block it and affluent pundits would tweet-cry about it to each other.But amid all that elite whining and couch-fainting, Democrats would be launching a battle against an immoral system of education debt – and directly helping 40 million voters ahead of a midterm election.It’s so easy and simple – which is probably why they won’t do it.
      David Sirota is a Guardian US columnist and an award-winning investigative journalist. He is an editor-at-large at Jacobin, and the founder of the Lever. He served as Bernie Sanders’ presidential campaign speechwriter
      Andrew Perez is a senior editor at The Lever and a co-founder of the Democratic Policy Center
      A version of this piece was first published in the Lever, a reader-supported investigative news outlet
      TopicsUS student debtOpinionUS politicsBiden administrationJoe BidenDemocratsUS CongressUS student financecommentReuse this content More

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      ‘Killing the middle class’: millions in US brace for student loan payments after Covid pause

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      ‘Killing the middle class’: millions in US brace for student loan payments after Covid pauseStudent debt in America has become a crisis for millions of citizens that often feels like it will last for people’s whole lives Jennifer Rae Wilson, a social worker and single mother of three children in Richland, Washington, has struggled with student loan debt since she went back to school and graduated in 2000 – more than two decades ago.Struggling to raise three boys with very little child support, Wilson decided to attend college 10 years after graduating high school to improve her career prospects. She was eventually able to move out of low-income assistance housing and off government assistance programs.“But then the school loans hit,” said Wilson. “I couldn’t afford the payments on top of rent and all of the other things, there was no way that I could make those payments.”She is not alone, as student debt in America has become a crisis for millions of citizens that often feels like it will last for people’s whole lives, or at least blight them for many years to come after graduation. Around 44.7 million Americans have outstanding student loan debt totaling over $1.86tn, with 42.3 million Americans holding federal student loan debt.The US Department of Education paused repayment, collections and interest on federal student loans in response to the Covid-19 pandemic under Trump, with the final extension on the pause set to expire on 31 January 2022.But now millions of Americans are bracing for resuming payments on federal student loans after nearly two years of relief – and the crisis is set to roll on again.Between rent, bills and daycare costs, Wilson went into default after not being able to keep up with student loan payments. Then her paychecks started being garnished in 2010 to pay off the student loans of around $1,000 per month, which was just paying off the interest on her principal.The pause on student loan repayments during the pandemic allowed Wilson to catch up on other bills and purchase a home, but she worries about the payments restarting.“It kind of concerns me a little bit with it coming back with what they’re going to be able to offer us in terms of payment plans,” added Wilson. “I’ve been making payments for 20 years and my balance has only gone up. That doesn’t make any sense. If I made a $1,000 per month payment on my car, or on my house, I would be paid off and I would not have a home loan or would not have a car loan. But with this, it doesn’t seem to make a difference.”A recent survey of more than 33,000 student loan borrowers conducted by the Student Debt Crisis Center found 89% of borrowers are not financially secure enough to resume payments on 1 February. Prior to the pandemic, over half of all student loan borrowers were either in default, forbearance, deferment, or otherwise not currently making payments on their student debt.PJ Rivera of Texas is one of the borrowers not prepared to resume student loan payments. His initial student debt was around $80,000, but has increased with interest to $110,000, despite making payments of $1,000 a month.“Student loans have crippled my ability to have personal savings but the inability to help my family who are struggling with hospital bills and other medical bills,” said Rivera. “The system doesn’t work. It’s not the students’ fault because you need money to pay for your career. Maybe tuition shouldn’t be so high to start with. Everyone should be able to study and learn about whatever they are passionate about without going broke or living to pay and nothing else.”The average student loan debt for new college graduates is around $30,000. Joe Biden campaigned on cancelling $10,000 in student loan debt per person and cancelling student debt for Americans who attended Historically Black Colleges and Universities and public colleges, but the Biden Administration has yet to cancel debt for these AmericansBeverly Dunker Brown of New York City completed her undergraduate and graduate degrees in the 1980s and 90’s, but with high interest rates and taking on parent plus loans for her son, her student loan debt has increased from around $43,000 in loans to over $150,000.“I will be in my late 80s paying student loans off of social security income,” said Dunker Brown. “I have Federal Family Education Loan Program loans which were not paused. I can’t afford to pay them and continue to request forbearances on them.”Despite making a six-figure salary in business administration, she is unable to properly save for retirement, save for home, and cares for her disabled husband who is a cancer survivor and regularly requires dialysis. Her own student loans are $862 monthly and the parent plus loans for her son will add another $362 a month when the federal student loan pause ends.“The interest and penalties are just crazy. My student loan balance increases each month. Black and Brown people can’t get ahead,” added Dunker Brown. “I have no generational wealth, retirement savings or savings for an emergency, yet I have an MBA that I earned in 1996. Having a fancy degree wasn’t the answer it was supposed to be.”Black college graduates owe an average of $7,400 more in student loans than white college graduates, and that gap more than triples to nearly $25,000 after four years from graduation.Sabrina Elliott of Charlotte, North Carolina, couldn’t afford to make payments toward her student loans for the first eight years after graduating law school. By the time she could afford to start making payments, with the debt ballooned from over $72,000 to more than $166,000.For the past seven years, Elliott has made monthly minimum payments of nearly $1,400 a month, but still owes more than the original loans despite paying over $90,000 toward the debt in that time.“Student loans should not impair a person from being a homeowner, starting a family or a badge of shame,” said Elliott. “I have made payment for over seven years and the balance is the same. As you can see, I have repaid the original loan. The minimum payment is a mortgage payment but not high enough to reduce the debt.”Kaida Flowers, a family and child therapist in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, has struggled to try to pay her student loans from her undergraduate and master’s degree, and only makes around $50,000 a year working a job she pursued to try to help people and emphasized student debt is causing her and others who pursued similar career paths to struggle to get by.She has struggled to try to pay her student loans from her undergraduate and master’s degree, and only makes around $50,000 a year working a job she pursued to try to help people and emphasized student debt is causing her and others who pursued similar career paths to struggle to get by.When the payments resume, she will be forced to pay $300 a month again toward her student debt, most of which goes toward interest.“They’re killing the middle class,” added Flowers. “Part of the American dream is you go to school, you try to do something to have a better life, but it’s just not what it is.”TopicsBiden administrationUS student financeUS student debtJoe BidenUS politicsfeaturesReuse this content More

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      Columbia students threaten to withhold tuition fees amid Covid protest

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      Almost 1,800 students at Columbia University in New York are threatening to withhold tuition fees next year, in the latest signal to US academia of widespread preparedness to act on demands to reduce costs and address social justice issues relating to labor, investments and surrounding communities.In a letter to trustees and administrators of Columbia, Barnard College and Teachers College, the students said: “The university is acutely failing its students and the local community.”They accused the university of “inaction” since the start of the Covid-19 pandemic in March, when students began demonstrating against what they say are exorbitant tuition rates “which constitute a significant source of financial hardship during this economic depression”.The letter referred to national protests over structural racism, accusing the university of failing to act on demands to address “its own role in upholding racist policing practices, damaging local communities and inadequately supporting Black students”.Emmaline Bennett, chair of the Columbia-Barnard Young Democratic Socialists of America and a master’s student at Teachers College, told the Guardian the university and other colleges had made no effort to reduce tuition fees as they moved to remote learning models necessitated by pandemic conditions.“We think it says a lot about the profit motive of higher education, even as the economy is in crisis and millions of people are facing unemployment,” Bennett said. “This is especially true of Columbia, which is one of the most expensive universities in the US.”Demands outlined in the letter include reducing the cost of attendance by at least 10%, increasing financial aid by the same percentage and replacing fees with grants.Such reforms, the letter said, should not come at the expense of instructor or worker pay, but rather at the expense of bloated administrative salaries, expansion projects and other expenses that do not directly benefit students and workers.The university, the letter said, must invest in community safety solutions that prioritise the safety of Black students, and “commit to complete transparency about the University’s investments and respect the democratic votes of the student body regarding investment and divestment decisions – including divestment from companies involved in human rights violations and divesting fully from fossil fuels.“These issues are united by a shared root cause: a flagrant disregard for initiatives democratically supported within the community. Your administration’s unilateral decision-making process has perpetuated the existence of these injustices in our community despite possessing ample resources to confront them with structural solutions.“Should the university continue to remain silent in the face of the pressing demands detailed below, we and a thousand of fellow students are prepared to withhold tuition payments for the Spring semester and not to donate to the university at any point in the future.”A Columbia spokesperson said: “Throughout this difficult year, Columbia has remained focused on preserving the health and safety of our community, fulfilling our commitment to anti-racism, providing the education sought by our students and continuing the scientific and other research needed to overcome society’s serious challenges.”The university has frozen undergraduate tuition fees and allowed greater flexibility in coursework over three terms. It has also, it said, adopted Covid-related provisions including an off-campus living allowance of $4,000 per semester, to help with living and technology expenses related to remote learning.Columbia is not alone in facing elevated student demands. In late August, for example, students at the University of Chicago staged a week-long picket of the provost’s house as part of a campaign to disband the university police department, Chicago’s largest private force.The issue of student debt remains challenging. In a nod to progressives, President-elect Joe Biden last month affirmed his support for a US House measure which would erase up to $10,000 in private, non-federal loan debt for distressed individuals.Biden highlighted “people … having to make choices between paying their student loan and paying the rent” and said such debt relief “should be done immediately”.Some Democrats say relief should go further. In September, Senate minority leader Chuck Schumer and Massachusetts senator Elizabeth Warren co-authored a resolution which called for the next president to cancel up to $50,000 of outstanding federal loans per borrower.At Columbia, students say their demands for Covid-related fee reductions are only a starting point.“In the long-term, we need to reform the educational system entirely,” said Bennett. “We need to make all universities and colleges free, and to cancel all student debt to prevent enduring educational and economic inequalities.” More

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      How we can truly repay our frontline health workers: clear their debts | Alissa Quart, Astra Taylor And Brittany M Powell

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      How we can truly repay our frontline health workers: clear their debts Many of the workers risking their lives amid the pandemic are burdened with student debt. We owe them more than just applause by Alissa Quart, Astra Taylor And Brittany M Powell [embedded content] Photograph by Bayete Ross Smith/EHRP and The Guardian Every day […] More