You may have seen over the past two weeks dozens of articles emerging detailing the Biden Administration’s plans to address the student loan debt crisis in the United States via executive fiat. While plans to cancel student loans may ostensibly sound noble, they actually penalize the majority of Americans who do not have a college degree. Instead of promoting personal responsibility, the Biden Administration is championing a plan that will increase taxes on the lowest earners in our nation to subsidize educational decisions made by the highest earners. This plan to cancel student loan debt amounts to nothing more than political prodigality designed to secure young people’s vote in the elections to come.
When I was 18 years old I decided to attend Saint Anselm College in my home state of New Hampshire. It made the most sense for me given that I was awarded an athletic scholarship alongside some additional scholarship money based on academic merit. While the scholarship funds did help lower the cost of college, I too graduated college with some student loan debt. After graduating, I got a job and began paying off my remaining student loans. This experience is becoming less common as my generation has unfortunately experienced rising costs in higher education and coupled that with poor decisions on their choice of college.
However, attending college at the end of the day is a personal choice and that consequences the follow should not be thrust upon those who did not decide to go to college. Accordingly, it should not be a surprise to hear that the majority of student loan debt is owned by higher income households. For example, according to the Brookings Institution, the highest income households—defined as those who make nearly $75,000 per year—owe almost 60% of the outstanding education debt and comprise of over three quarters of those payments. Comparatively, lower income households only make up 20% of the outstanding student debt in the United States and fill the remaining quarter of payments. However, those who do go to college, on average, make more than those who do not and therefore the decision to go to college is one that can pay off in the long run.
Yet, many Americans make the equally judicious decision for themselves not to attend college and therefore are not subject to the over-encumbering financial burdens that often follow higher education. Why should they be forced to subsidize the decisions made by others?
Furthermore, American colleges and universities have increasingly become centers of indoctrination for progressive and woke policies. No longer are colleges sources of rigorous debate and intellectual discourse. This trend has also turned many hardworking Americans who love and support our country away from these institutions as they have grown increasingly hostile to the bedrocks of American society. Additionally, there are plenty of alternatives for those looking to secure a good life for themselves and their families.
Instead of cancelling student loan debt, the Biden Administration should support things like trade schools as did its predecessor. In 2020, the Department of Education proposed a doubling of federal commitment to provide states with funds for career and technical education, boosting funding from roughly $1.2 billion to over $2 billion. This investment would have been the first major federal investment in vocational education in over two decades. Yet, the Biden Administration has seemingly ignored such plans and continues its quest to cancel student loan debt. Outside of promoting vocational schools, joining the military is a great career path for many young men and women looking to give back to their country and enjoy great life-starting benefits in return for their service to the nation.
Unfortunately, the Biden Administration refuses to promote such alternatives and instead is asking millions of Americans without college degrees to foot the trillion-dollar bill for those who made their own decision to go to college.
As a member of Gen-Z, I understand the reality we face when deciding to go to college, yet ultimately personal responsibility must be at the forefront. When deciding if and where to go to college, it is a risk that we take and must deal with the consequences—such as thousands of dollars of debt. We cannot force others to subsidize the decisions that we made because of the costs that follow. Furthermore, the cancelling of student loan debt will hurt the millions of Americans who decided to forge their own paths in a different way, while crushing lower income households in the face of record-breaking inflation.
The Biden Administration must end this woke charade for votes and actually begin enacting policies that work for all of the American people, no matter their level of education.
Karoline Leavitt is a Republican candidate for Congress in New Hampshire's 1st District. She served as an Assistant Press Secretary in the White House Press Office under President Donald J Trump, and is a graduate of Saint Anselm College in Manchester.
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