College students are not unfamiliar with having to take out student loans and accepting some type of financial aid on Wingspan each year because of the high and increasing price of college tuition. It is also not uncommon to know someone who has had to take out more than one loan, along with the parents taking out their own loans.
Unfortunately, this is something that feels like students will always have to deal with. College students across the country felt a sense of relief when President Biden promised to erase $10,000 of student loan debt. We know now that this will not be happening like expected.
“President Biden’s broken promise has really upset mostly all college students” Jayon Babb, junior religious studies major said. “I can’t say that I’m shocked because we should be used to politicians not following through on their promises.”
According to Education Data, student loan debt in the United States has reached $1.7 trillion and there are about 43.2 people who borrow money from the government in order to pay for their college tuition. The average borrower owes about $36,000 on their loans.
As if paying back student loans wasn’t hard enough, the pandemic impacted people’s ability to make payments on their loans, causing the payment amount to increase and, in some cases, it caused the interest amount to rise. In 2020, around the time of the beginning of the pandemic, the student loan debt balance will increase by 8.28%.
There is controversy surrounding the topic of what to do about the large amount of student loan debt. Some believe that student loan debt should be erased completely because of the outrageous amount that has been accumulated, while others believe that it is only fair that people pay their loans back since so many people have finished paying on their loans or have already paid a lot into their loans.
“Personally, I believe that the student debt people have accumulated over the years should be erased. I know there are many people that have already paid a lot toward their student loans and while it may seem unfair that younger generations are getting the loans removed, I believe the elimination of the rest of their loans would cause a lot of joy as well.” Karl Volg, a sophomore mass communication major shared.
Fortunately, for many people, the CARES Act was able to bring some financial support and relief. According to Education Data, the CARES Act offered student loan debt relief and affected at least 20 million people. Additionally, students at Winthrop were able to apply for funding from the CRRSAA Act to help with pandemic and spring expenses.
However, even with the different places to apply for money to go towards student loans, many students still feel overwhelmed and worry about how they will pay back their student loan debt.
“I don’t feel confident in paying it back at the moment. For me it would have to depend on what job I would be getting to help me pay for my student loans. Even after getting a job, however, I feel like I might have a difficult time paying student loans along with rent and other bills as well,” Matthew Crisman, a senior business administration major shared.
Sadly, there is no clear answer to what will happen with student loan debt except to pay them back over the next many years. Even though it is a privilege to be able to obtain higher education, both community colleges and universities should be made more affordable rather than causing young adults to fall into debt straight out of high school. At this point, we can only hope that a decision is made sooner rather than later and that it is one that will be beneficial for students now and those to come.
Photo by Emma Crouch
Very good article. I like it.