The nightmare of university loans in the United States: Joe Biden forgives the student debt of thousands of public employees for 6 billion dollars

President Joe Biden announced Thursday that his Gov will cancel the student loans of about 78,000 workers of American public services, including teachers, nurses, firefighters and others who have “dedicated their careers to serving their communities” and each can receive up to $77,000 to close your credits. With this measure, in the midst of the election campaign, the president is trying to alleviate the situation the heavy burden which weighs on a large part of young university students and the middle class.

Study at universities in the United Statesself costly (it can cost up to $100,000 a year with accommodation) e It is not accessible to everyone. Many students achieve get scholarships total or partial that help them, but a good part he asks for loans from banks to pay for his career undergraduate and postgraduate. When they graduate, new graduates start paying them their first salary, but years can pass and decades entangled in a loan that for many becomes in a nightmare

From the beginning of his mandate, Biden has sought a widespread loan forgiveness plan students to alleviate the plight of nearly 4 million people. But a Supreme Court decision invalidated this initiative because believed it would have to go through Congress.

Since then, the president has been trying to find a way to help them and so focused on public workers to avoid the limitation of the Court. This time he will run over some of them 6 billion dollars and the relief amounts to about $77,000 per person, the White House reported.

More than 45 million people in debt

More than 45 million Americans have a total student debt of approx $1.77 trillion (it is almost the size of Brazil’s economy or in Australia, calculates the New York Times), a financial burden that, according to graduates, is such a burden It stops them from progressing or buying a home.

“From day one of my administration, I have promised to fix student loan programs and secure higher education be a ticket to the middle classnot a barrier to opportunity,” President Biden said in a statement.

He added, “I will not back down from using all the tools at my disposal to provide student debt relief to more Americans building an economy from the center out and from the bottom up“, as opposed to the liberal idea of ​​a top-down trickle-down economy.

The student loan forgiveness announced Thursday brings the administration’s total write-offs of public service employees to 870,000, Biden said.

“And through all of our various student debt relief efforts, nearly four million Americans saw the cancellation their student debt under my administration,” he said.

In the electoral madness

Although his plan has been going on for years, Biden is trying to accelerate the program in the midst of the November election campaign because he wants to a sector that is becoming increasingly elusive.

The fact is that many young people, an electorate that generally leans Democratic, are disappointed in the president because they believe that his government It wasn’t progressive enough..

Furthermore, in many states, clear protest votes against Biden’s policy in the conflict between Israel and Gaza emerged in university enclaves. Many young people, even those who voted for the president in 2020, also think this way today he’s too old continue to the White House.

Beyond the student vote, the cancellation of university loans also aims to relieve the middle class. Biden tries to present himself in the campaign as a man born from a workhouseborn in Scranton, Pennsylvania, unlike his rival Donald Trump, born in New York as son of a millionaire businessman.