Opinion: Biden's student loan forgiveness is a good start, but it falls short for borrowers like me
I have a secret shame.
I owe $299,715 in student loan debt – $281,111 on the principal and $18,604 in interest.
When I tell my non-American friends how much I owe for my law degree, their reaction, no matter where they are from, is always the same. "Do you realize you could buy a house with that?" they scream at me.
I always want to yell back, "OF COURSE I DO!" But I can't. It's not their fault that my country makes it impossible to get an education unless you're already wealthy or, in the alternative, willing to stomach taking on debt to get a higher education, and even more if you want a professional degree like I have.
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Enter Biden's action on student loan debt
With President Joe Biden announcing Wednesday a debt relief of $10,000 per borrower in federal student loan, as a progressive I applaud the gesture. As Americans struggle with inflation, extending the pause on payments through December is also helpful. So are other changes and actions that Department of Education is attempting to take, such as freezing interest as long as borrowers keep up with monthly payments.
Even so, all this doesn't go far enough.
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I recognize that the president is trying to follow through with his campaign promise and give Democrats more to run on in the November elections. And because the average borrower has about $37,000 in debt, I recognize this will be a big deal for some families.
Forgiving $10,000 isn't enough for people like me who owe much more. This also does nothing for future generations who might not get a chance at any debt cancellation under a different administration, and $10,000 does nothing to rein in the rising prices of public and private colleges and graduate schools. Only systematic change can do all of that.
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Student loans debt facts:
►More than 45 million borrowers owe $1.6 trillion in federal student debt, according to the White House.
►Nearly a third of borrowers have debt but no degree, according to an analysis by the Department of Education of recent undergraduates.
►7% of people with federal debt owe more than $100,000.
►About 16% of borrowers are in default – including nearly a third of senior citizens with student debt.
►The Education Department is also "proposing a rule to create a new income-driven repayment plan that will substantially reduce future monthly payments for lower- and middle-income borrowers. ... Additionally, the proposed rule would fully cover the borrower’s unpaid monthly interest, so that – unlike with current income-driven repayment plans – a borrower’s loan balance will not grow so long as they are making their required monthly payments."
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Where critics are wrong
Critics say student loan forgiveness benefits the elite, but they miss the mark. If you had to take out loans to get an education, you clearly weren't an elite in the first place.
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What I do agree with conservatives and moderate Democrats, however, is that this $10,000 forgiveness does nothing to fix the problem facing our higher education system.
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I don't regret my education
When I was debating whether or not to go to law school, I asked my father what he thought I should do. It was 2008, the middle of the Great Recession, and at the time, my parents were unable to help me pay for my law degree. My mother had just lost her job; my dad was losing his house and going through serious health difficulties. I hoped that by going to law school, I would be able to help my family weather this crisis or any other crisis that we might face in the future.
My father, a former lawyer himself, told me that no one could ever take my degree away from me, and that law school would be an amazing education.
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He was absolutely right about that. And despite what I owe, I have never, not once, regretted going to law school.
An education shouldn't be only for the already affluent. And middle-class and lower-income people shouldn't be made to feel guilty for wanting to educate themselves, and then preemptively robbed of their potential future earnings because they have to pay back what they borrowed in order to go to school.
Student loan debt is holding Americans back. Biden's announcement is a good first step, but it needs to be followed up with more significant steps in the near future.
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Carli Pierson, a New York licensed attorney, is an opinion writer with USA TODAY, and a member of the USA TODAY Editorial Board. Follow her on Twitter: @CarliPiersonEsq.
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This article originally appeared on USA TODAY: Opinion: Biden cancels student loan debt for some, but it's not enough
