Analysis of the Biden Administration’s Federal Student Loan Forgiveness Efforts
Millions of students have had their student loans waived, totaling close to $180 billion. What are the other implications of these actions?
KARAN SADIORA
Depiction of Student Loan Crisis within America, Tommy/Getty Images
Until the final hours, the Biden administration continues to pursue their goal of limited federal student loan forgiveness. This action aimed to ease the stress of financial burden on millions of Americans, and as of January 2025, more than 5 million current and past students have been relieved of a total of more than $180 billion through a number of different initiatives. Just this past Monday, the Biden administration forgave student loans for 150,000 more students using programs that existed even before Biden’s presidency, despite Supreme Court pushback.
The most recent wave of relief originates from a program known as borrower’s defense. This allows students to have their debts relieved if they have faced misconduct or misleading information from the educational institution they attended. Additionally, more loans are also being canceled for those who have permanent disabilities or are public service workers. Notably, Ashford University, one of the largest for profit-colleges, misled students about its legitimacy, costs, and other information such as graduation timelines, leading the Biden administration to cancel loans for over 260,000 former students of the school. Overall, these efforts demonstrate the Biden administration’s commitment to combat fraudulent practices in higher education.
Student loan forgiveness has given financial relief to millions of Americans.The debt forgiveness can increase the amount of available income for people, stimulating economic growth. Furthermore, student loan forgiveness creates a greater sense of equity in the economy. Time Magazine featured an article titled “How We All Benefit From Student Debt Relief”, detailing that, "Overall Black borrowers have more difficulty paying their student debts back. The average Black borrower still owes 95% of their debt after 20 years, while a comparable white borrower owes only 5%."
However, there are also some downsides to this forgiveness. For one, in order to fund such an expensive program, concerns regarding the increased burden on taxpayers arise. Proponents argue that forgiving debt is unfair to those who have already paid off their student loans. While some people work extra hard in order to get such funds, others have all their loans canceled by the government. Lastly, forgiving loans does not solve the problem of misconduct and increased college tuition costs. Treating the symptoms without addressing the root cause of this misconduct will lead to the problems recurring.
While Biden’s student loan forgiveness efforts have given relief to some Americans by allowing them to live without financial burden, there is still criticism regarding its economic impact on the rest of society and lack of action towards the main issue in which loans stem from. As time goes on, policies will change under different leadership. The appointment of Linda McMahon as Secretary of Education–which will undoubtedly influence the future directions of student loan policies—will present continued challenges for solving the root cause, hindering most current advances.
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