(The Hill) – Student debt forgiveness is a sensitive campaign issue for both Vice President Harris and President Trump. While the Biden-Harris administration has struggled to implement some of President Biden’s key policy goals, Trump has said he opposes debt forgiveness, which is strongly supported by the young voters he needs to win over.
There are big differences between Harris and Trump on student loan issues. Harris will likely continue President Biden’s policies, and Trump has indicated he will not do much on the issue of debt relief.
“So, Kamala, the prospects of doing really well on student loans are very slim,” 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 all they’re doing is offering a kind of swap line for student loans, which is what they’ve been doing for years. So student borrowers really have nothing to look for right now.”
Biden has forgiven about $170 billion in student debt through various programs, but failed to provide a general $10,000 relief to all borrowers, as he promised during the campaign.
When Harris ran for president in 2019, her platform was to forgive debt only for Pell Grant recipients who started a business in a disadvantaged community for at least three years.
Since becoming vice president, she has proudly expressed her support for the comprehensive forgiveness that Biden seeks, and both Democrats and Republicans are confident that she will continue down that path if elected.
“If she is elected, I think it will probably be a continuation of the same thing: attempts to forgive loans by any means necessary,” says Michael Brickman, an associate scholar at the American Enterprise Institute.
If she sticks with Biden’s policies, voters will see more efforts to forgive student loans through various income-driven repayment (IDR) programs and continued litigation over the new Saving on Valuable Education (SAVE) IDR plan.
The Biden-Harris administration’s actions coincide with a Harvard analysis that found that 70 percent of voters believe the government needs to take some kind of action on student debt.
“By forgiving student loans, the President wants to give Americans, especially young Americans, a fresh start,” said Michael Hopkins, CEO of Northern Starr Strategies.
“It’s so important that Democrats get elected to the House and Senate and that we win the White House because there is one party that really seems to be focused on the middle class and working families: the Democrats,” he added.
While Trump did grant some debt forgiveness to some students during his presidency, it was small compared to the Biden administration, which forgave more loans than any other president.
Trump’s aid only benefited certain groups of individuals and he did not offer comprehensive or universal forgiveness.
Although Trump often avoids the topic of debt relief, he has recently provided insights into his thinking.
“Yesterday, the Supreme Court also ruled that President Biden is not allowed to cancel hundreds and hundreds of billions, probably trillions of dollars in student loan debt. That would have been very unfair to the millions and millions of people who have paid off their debt through hard work and diligence,” Trump said last year when the Supreme Court struck down Biden’s universal debt forgiveness plan.
Both candidates are being urged to move forward on this issue.
Student loan advocates remain stunned by Biden’s attempt at universal debt forgiveness, saying he has not taken the right steps to implement the relief.
“Biden’s push in his first four years as president was to forgive student loans. He promised to do that and never tried to use the right law (…). Instead, he used an inappropriate law,” said Collinge. Biden has been criticized several times for tying his universal debt forgiveness to emergency legislation during the pandemic.
And Republicans will expect Trump to ensure that future presidents do not have the power to provide aid.
“Under a Trump administration, depending on what happens with Congress, there will probably be a permanent end to large-scale debt forgiveness at some point,” said Michael Brickman, associate fellow at the American Enterprise Institute.
“I know that Republicans in Congress are very eager to make it clear once and for all through legislation that this must never happen again,” he added.
