Student debt forgiveness put campaigns in a tricky spot

Student debt forgiveness is a tricky campaign issue for both Vice President Harris and former President Trump. While the Biden-Harris administration has struggled to deliver on some of President Biden’s key policies, Trump has said he is against the forgiveness that is highly favored by the young voters he needs to sway to his side.

There are stark differences in how Harris and Trump would approach student loans. Harris is likely to continue President Biden’s policies, and Trump has signaled he will not do much in terms of loan forgiveness.

“So Kamala, the prospects for being really great on student loans are very low,” said Alan Collinge, founder of Student Loan Justice, adding, “We have even less hope for the Republicans. If you look at Project 2025, it’s pretty clear that they’re just telling the sort of student loans swamp line, which they’ve been doing for years now. So student loans borrowers really don’t have anywhere to look for at this point.”  

Biden has forgiven about $170 billion in student debt through various programs but failed to give $10,000 in universal relief to all borrowers, as he promised to during his campaign.  

When Harris ran for president in 2019, her platform only would forgive the debts of Pell Grant recipients who start a business in a disadvantaged community for at least three years.  

Since becoming vice president, she has proudly shown support for the broad forgiveness Biden has aimed for, and both Democrats and Republicans believe she will continue on a similar path if elected.

“Well, I think if she’s elected, it will probably be a continuation of the same thing, attempts to forgive loans by any means necessary,” said Michael Brickman, an adjunct fellow with the American Enterprise Institute. 

If she does stick with Biden’s policies, voters would see more efforts to forgive student loans through various income-driven repayment (IDR) programs and a continuation of the legal fight for the new Saving on Valuable Education IDR plan. 

The actions of the Biden-Harris administration come as a Harvard analysis found that 70 percent of voters think the government needs to take some sort of action when it comes to student debt.

“What the President has done with student loan forgiveness is really trying to focus on giving Americans, especially young Americans, a fresh start,” said Michael Starr Hopkins, CEO of Northern Starr Strategies.

“It’s so important that Democrats get elected in the House and the Senate, and that we win the White House, because there’s one party that really seems to be focused on middle-class, working families: Democrats,” he added.

While Trump gave some student debt relief during his presidency, it was minuscule compared to the Biden administration, which has forgiven more loans than any other president.  

Trump’s relief only went to targeted groups of individuals, and he did not propose any sort of broad or universal forgiveness.

Although Trump often steers away from the topic of loan forgiveness, he has given glimpses of his thoughts more recently.

“Yesterday, the Supreme Court also ruled that President Biden is not allowed to wipe out hundreds and hundreds of billions, probably trillions, of dollars in student loan debt, which would have been very unfair to the millions and millions of people who have paid their debt through hard work and diligence,” Trump said last year when the Supreme Court struck down Biden’s universal debt relief plan. 

Both candidates will be pushed to go further on the issue. 

Student loan advocates are still reeling from Biden’s attempt at universal loan forgiveness, saying he didn’t use the proper measure to push relief through.  

“Biden’s push in his first four years as president was on student loan cancellation. It was something he promised to do, and he never attempted to use the correct law. … Instead, he used ill-fitting piece of legislation,” Collinge said. Biden has been criticized numerous times for tying his universal forgiveness to emergency act powers during the pandemic.  

And Republicans will be looking for Trump to ensure future presidents do not have the power to give away any relief.

“Under a Trump administration, you probably see along the line — depending on what happens with Congress — you can see a permanent end” to vast loan forgiveness, Brickman said.

“I know Republicans in Congress are very eager to make clear in law once and for all that this can never happen again,” he added.