The Time Has Come to Pay the Tuition Piper

Education Secretary Linda McMahon has defended the Administration’s decision to resume student loan debt collections, insisting that greedy colleges have “profited massively” from Biden-era forgiveness measures.

 

In a fiery Wall Street Journal op-ed addressing the move, the Education Secretary blamed the Biden Administration and universities for making “empty promises to students while pocketing their loan dollars.”

The problem here is that for every dollar of increased federal caps on subsidized loans, colleges raised tuition by 60 cents. The is an unfair burden placed on a student, believing that the higher cost of tuition guarantees a better education and better opportunities after graduation.

“Colleges and universities call themselves nonprofits, but for years they have profited massively off the federal subsidy of loans, hiking tuition and piling up multibillion-dollar endowments while students graduate six figures in the red,” McMahon wrote.

She blamed former President Joe Biden for lying to students by telling them he would forgive their loans when he ran in 2020, and several times after that, only to be shot down by the Supreme Court. It was up to the Congress to change that law, according to the Court. NOT the President.

The Public Service Loan Forgiveness (PSLF) program, which was established by the Congress in 2007, allows eligible public service workers, including those in public schools, to have their remaining federal student loan balance forgiven after TEN years of qualifying employment and making 120 monthly payments. This program is designed to encourage individuals to work in public service roles, like teaching in public schools, by providing a way to reduce or eliminate their student loan debt.

The Secretary continued, “Accountability is a two-way street. As we push to hold student borrowers to account, we will also push colleges to be responsible and transparent.

“On May 5, we will begin the process of moving roughly 1.8 million borrowers into repayment plans and restart collections of loans in default. Borrowers who don’t make payments on time will see their credit scores go down, and in some cases, their wages automatically garnished.

“Why? Not because we want to be unkind to student borrowers. Borrowing money and failing to pay it back isn’t a victimless offense. Debt doesn’t go away; it gets transferred to others. If borrowers don’t pay their debts to the government, taxpayers do,” McMahon added.

The Education Department said some 42.7 million borrowers who owe more than $1.6 trillion in student debt are pushing the nation’s federal student loan portfolio toward a “fiscal cliff.”

It is time for Universities and Students to pony up and take responsibility for their actions.