It was one of his campaign promises: the President of the United States, Joe Biden, announced on Wednesday August 24 a partial cancellation of student loans, a much-awaited decision in a country where a year at university can cost several tens of thousands of dollars.
“As per my campaign promise, my administration is announcing a plan to give working-class and middle-class families a break as they prepare to resume federal student loan repayments in January 2023.”Mr. Biden tweeted.
The measure concerns people earning less than $125,000 a year, according to an illustration accompanying the president’s tweet. It will be a question of erasing 10,000 dollars for people who have not benefited from a federal scholarship to pay the costs related to their university studies; $20,000 for those of more modest means who received one.
In keeping with my campaign promise, my Administration is announcing a plan to give working and middle class famili… https://t.co/dH6UYlnKej
The President also extended the moratorium on the repayment of federal student loans for ” one last time “ until the end of 2022.
20 million people affected
Democratic Senators Chuck Schumer and Elizabeth Warren hailed, in a joint statement, “a giant step towards resolving the student debt crisis”. On the contrary, the chairman of the Republican National Committee, Ronna McDaniel, judged that this measure “unfairly punished Americans who saved up for college or made a different career choice”.
In 2019, some 45 million Americans accumulated a debt of 1.6 trillion dollars contracted to pay for their higher education. This amount, multiplied by almost three in the space of twelve years, is much higher than the debt linked to credit cards (approximately 1,000 billion). Upon graduation, each borrower owes an average of $32,000.
Almost a third of borrowers owe less than $10,000 and about half owe less than $20,000. The White House estimates that the measure announced by Mr. Biden would erase the federal student debt of about 20 million people.