Nearly two dozen governors — all of them Republicans — have sent a letter to President Biden, saying they “fundamentally oppose” the plan to cancel up to $20,000 of student loans for individuals across the country, saying that the price each American is going to have to pay to cover that amount of money will have a “regressive impact that harms lower income families.”
Backstory: Last month, President Biden announced a plan that will cancel $10,000 of student loan debt for any individual making less than $125,000 annually, and up to $20,000 for any individual with a Pell grant. The plan also creates a cap on the monthly payment amount for individuals who will have to resume making payments in January with a moratorium on payments is scheduled to expire.
Backlash: Critics of the plan — mainly Republicans — say that canceling student loan debt will redistribute the burden to all Americans, forcing those making the least to help subsidize the student loan debts of doctors and lawyers.
- People made a decision to attend college or university and to finance the cost of that decision, the governors said in their letter. Cancelling debt for some people insults those who have already paid off their student loans and forces those who did not take out a loan to pay for the student loans of others, the governors claim.
- The better solution, the governors propose, is to address “the rising cost of tuition for higher education or working to lower interest rates for student loans.”
