Student Loan Relief Proposals - Not Looking Good For Law School Deans, Progressives, Liberals Running in Midterms

 "The administration has also discussed limiting forgiveness to undergraduate loans [and], excluding those who had taken out loans for professional degrees in fields such as law and medicine, the people said." - Jeff Stein, The Washington Post, April 30, 2022.

LAW SCHOOLS

The ideas are floating around. But the reality that loans for law-school education have been discussed as what to exclude from the list for forgiveness should worry the deans of law schools. That could mean that current students and alumni have no current hope of having a reduction in loan debt. The message could be sent to potential applicants, already saddled with undergraduate loans which might not be forgiven, to back off from the whole training-to-be-a-lawyer idea. Stop the higher education journey with the college degree.

GAME RIGGED FOR THOSE SITTING PRETTY

Meanwhile, what could put a kibosh on the whole plan are the statistics from the People's Policy Project. Those document that most of the student loan debt is held by those earning higher income. The poorest 20% only hold 8% of the student loan debt. 

So, hasn't the higher-education game been one dominated by those already sitting pretty? And there's not a whole lot of room in the positioning for the poor. Progressives could be tarred and feathered as hypocrites for leveraging a proposal which primarily will benefit the well-off.  With little in the works for the have-nots.

OH BOY, THE MIDTERMS

In a nation moving right of center, in campaigning in the midterms Democrats have a lot of explaining to do about their leadership's student loan relief thinking. Here in Arizona the jaw-jawing is: I paid my student loans. That was the right thing to do. Everyone should have to pay. 

That one issue could become high-profile. And not only in conservative locations and with those registered as conservative. I am registered independent. I paid off my student loans. That was despite that I had buyer's remorse about "pursuing excellence" in a doctoral program. 

Connect with the Editor-in-Chief at janegenova374@gmail.com.

 

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