Many questions exist as Biden ponders student loan forgiveness

As President Joe Biden weighs forgiving  $1.7 trillion in student loan debt for more than 40 million borrowers, both Democrats and Republicans and higher education experts are questioning the plan’s feasibility, Inside Higher Ed reported Thursday.

Questions involve debt relief’s long-term implications which includes the need to reform the country’s highly complex student loan and servicing programs and system, according to Inside Higher Ed.

“It seems increasingly apparent that the Biden administration intends to announce some sort of loan cancellation or forgiveness effort, but there is absolutely no information available to help people understand even the most basic elements of what such a policy would look like,” Terry Hartle, senior vice president of the American Council on Education told Inside Higher Ed. “There’s a great deal of confusion and uncertainty about what might happen.”

One issue is whether there should be an income cap on any debt relief. Democratic senators Chuck Schumer of New York, Elizabeth Warren of Massachusetts and Raphael Warnock of Georgia, want Biden to use his executive authority to erase at least $50,000 of debt per borrower. But Inside Higher Ed is reporting that that is unlikely and that the administration may exclude borrowers with yearly incomes of more than $125,000 to $150,000. Republicans, meanwhile, are  arguing that student-loan forgiveness is a wasteful use of federal resources.