Sen. Schumer calls on Biden to reduce student debt with executive order

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Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer (D-NY) is pushing the federal government to
forgive $50,000 in student loan debt for every student. 

Schumer’s proposal would urge President Joe Biden and Miguel Cardona, the secretary of education, to forgive federal or federally-backed loans with executive power. 

“I know how hard we are working to keep education affordable, to keep education high quality so that when people get out of college they can have a good future,” Schumer said in a press conference with college students Wednesday. “For far too many students and too so many graduates many years out of school, federal student loans and student loans in general are becoming a forever burden.”

Schumer said that 2.4 million New York residents owe about $90 billion in federal student loans. About 93% of all student loans are federal or federally-backed, giving the federal government the power to forgive them, he said.

Student loans also disproportionately affect people of color. About one-third of Latino borrowers and half of Black borrowers default on student loans, he said. About 28% of the wealth gap between Black and white students is caused by student debt, he said.

“It’s across the country. It’s across our state. And it particularly affects communities of color,” he said. “This is a racial justice issue as well as a fairness issue.”

Black and Latino students are also more likely to borrow money to go to college compared to their white peers, he said. 

Biden has said he will consider the plan, Schumer said. While federal officials have delayed student loan payments amid the pandemic, the loans have not been forgiven. 

“Once the pandemic is over, that debt is going to pile up,” he said.

The plan could also allow for economic relief if borrowers use the money that would have gone to repaying loans to support local businesses, Schumer said.

Colleges and universities across the state received a total of $2.6 billion from the American Rescue Plan, a recently passed federal economic stimulus package. Syracuse University received $15.4 million from this bill, which will directly support student aid.

If Schumer’s plan goes into effect, the Senate would not have to vote for it to pass, as the proposal is a resolution, not a law. Biden and Cardona’s executive power is enough to forgive the debt, he said.

Schumer also noted that student debt is a larger problem now than it has been in the past.

“It wasn’t this way 10 or 15 years ago,” he said. “It totally discombobulates people’s lives.”