Student Loan Forgiveness: Is It Good, Fair Policy?
September 21, 2022
Host:
SALON DESCRIPTION:
President Biden recently announced a plan to provide student debt relief to a subset of Americans. Some have criticized the plan as being unfair for a variety of reasons, while others have argued the plan doesn’t go far enough to help those with massive amounts of debt. In this discussion, held over dinner provided by the PPE Program, we will discuss some of the moral and political issues surrounding President Biden’s policy specifically and the concept of student forgiveness more broadly. Is student loan forgiveness good policy? Is student loan forgiveness fair? And relatedly: what are the structural issues that led to such high amounts of student debt to begin with, and how does student loan forgiveness affect our chances of successfully addressing these issues?
REQUIRED READINGS:
Videos:
- Short video about the difference between targeted and untargeted student loan forgiveness: Poorly Targeted: Student Loan Forgiveness | Intellections (1:36)
- Biden’s response to accusation his program his unfair: https://youtu.be/VGihjKez6GQ (:30)
- Fox News Segment on the supposed elitism of student loan forgiveness: https://www.msn.com/en-us/video/news/elites-are-in-charge-in-washington-patrice-onwuka/vi-AA11uUzX?category=foryou (5:46)
Readings:
- Op-ed by Gloria Blackwell (CEO, American Association of University Women), “Student Loan Forgiveness Doesn’t Go Far Enough for Black Women” https://www.cincinnati.com/story/opinion/contributors/2022/09/04/opinion-student-loan-forgiveness-doesnt-go-far-enough-for-black-women/65463883007/
- Piece by Myles Ma (Senior Reporter, Policygenius), “The moral case for student loan forgiveness, according to philosophers”: https://www.policygenius.com/loans/news/will-student-loans-be-forgiven-the-moral-case-for-debt-forgiveness/
- Op-ed by Prof. Richard Kyte (Director of the D. B. Reinhart Institute for Ethics in Leadership and Endowed Professor of Ethics at Viterbo University) “The moral failure of student debt relief”: https://www.policygenius.com/loans/news/will-student-loans-be-forgiven-the-moral-case-for-debt-forgiveness/