Political Quotes

“Mr. President, we all recognize that a postsecondary education is often the key to a family-sustaining, middle-class job. We also know that an educated workforce is essential to a modern, productive economy. However, our system that relies on student loan debt to finance that education is broken. At the end of fiscal year 2021, over 43 million Americans owed more than $1.6 trillion in Federal student loan debt. The pandemic has forced a long-overdue reckoning with the cost of student loan debt to our society. But the warning signs have been clear for some time. A National Center of Education Statistics Report found that students who graduated in 2016 still owed 78 percent of the amount they borrowed. Black graduates owed more than they had originally borrowed. Thirty-four percent of graduates reported negative net worth. As student loan debt has grown, young adults have put off buying homes or cars, starting a family, saving for retirement, or launching new businesses. They have literally mortgaged their economic future. In response to the pandemic, Congress and two administrations took unprecedented steps to ease the burden of student loan debt. While those steps provided urgently needed relief to current borrowers, we need to take steps now to reform the student loan system so future graduates are not saddled with crushing debt. Part of the answer is requiring institutions of higher education to have a greater stake in the outcomes for student loan borrowers.…”