Student Debt Relief

[Alpha]

for people with disabilities
The Department of Education will cancel $5.8 billion in student debt (cnbc.com)

[Kal Di]

I think this is a great move to help disabled people. I hope the next step is for the President to honor his promise by reducing everyone's student loan debt by $10,000. Not only would it help college dropouts, but it would also help graduates and students.

[dfrecore]

This was already law. So the fact that they're getting any credit for doing this is ridiculous - they SHOULD HAVE ALREADY DONE IT!

[sanantone]

Whether applications get processed or whether valid requests get approved depends on who's heading the Department of Education.

[dfrecore]

I think this is a great move to help disabled people. I hope the next step is for the President to honor his promise by reducing everyone's student loan debt by $10,000. Not only would it help college dropouts, but it would also help graduates and students.

You know who it doesn't help? 1) anyone who worked their way through college and didn't take on student loan debt; 2) anyone who paid off their student loan debt already; 3) anyone who chose not to go to college because they couldn't afford it.  It's pretty much a slap in the face to everyone without loans.

Why not pay off $10k of everyone's mortgage? Or credit card debt? Or car loans?

[jsd]

I didn't take on any student loan debt, but I don't take it as a personal offense that people are getting help when they need it even though I don't need that particular kind of help.

[dfrecore]

I didn't take on any student loan debt, but I don't take it as a personal offense that people are getting help when they need it even though I don't need that particular kind of help.

Not everyone needs the help.  My kid could take out $10k in student loans right now, just to see if it could get forgiven, even though we will pay for her to go to school (a friend's kid did exactly this - she has $10k in student loans, and $10k in the bank to pay them off if they don't get forgiven).  Lots of people took it out to pay for lifestyle.  This is not a "need" for many. But they'll get the loans forgiven anyway.

[jsd]

Sure, some people will take advantage of the system. Some people take advantage of our tax system too, and often times they're praised as shrewd business-minds for it. But there's more people that are going to be helped by a policy like this than there will be low lifes taking advantage of it.

Taking every possible worse case scenario and then choosing to focus on it as a slap in the face is a rough way to spend one's time and also a bleak lense to view public policy. Why do anything at all then, if one of my kids' friends might do something unscrupulous related to it?

[rachel83az]

If EVERYONE were willing to help those less fortunate than themselves instead of going "well, I got mine, so sucks to be you" then society would be a better place. I'm counting both billionaires and the average person next door.

[Kal Di]

I think this is a great move to help disabled people. I hope the next step is for the President to honor his promise by reducing everyone's student loan debt by $10,000. Not only would it help college dropouts, but it would also help graduates and students.

You know who it doesn't help? 1) anyone who worked their way through college and didn't take on student loan debt; 2) anyone who paid off their student loan debt already; 3) anyone who chose not to go to college because they couldn't afford it.  It's pretty much a slap in the face to everyone without loans.

Why not pay off $10k of everyone's mortgage? Or credit card debt? Or car loans?

I'd also support college graduates who paid off their debt (or graduated with no debt) to receive a $10k grant to further their higher education. It would be great for the President to support such an initiative to offer as a compromise for the people that share your concerns.