The Supreme Court declared the student loan forgiveness program proposed by Biden to be unconstitutional in a 6-3 decision in June. (Photo: Scott Applewhite)
FORMER DOE OFFICIAL SAYS BIDEN’S $39 BILLION IN STUDENT LOAN FORGIVENESS IS A ‘POLITICAL’ MOVE
In a report published by Fox News, the Biden administration’s decision to provide billions in student loan forgiveness could have been better used to fund other education efforts to address the catastrophic academic slide post-pandemic, according to a former U.S. official from the Department of Education.
According to Angela Morabito, a representative for the Defense of Freedom Institute, “If we did have $39 billion student loan forgiveness waiting around to be spent, there is a much better use of that, and it means getting students up to speed in the educational fundamentals that will serve them for a lifetime.”
It entails ensuring that every kid in America is proficient in reading, writing, math, and both science and history.
The Biden administration boasted that more than $116 billion had been spent on loan relief to more than 3 million borrowers since the president entered office when it announced on Friday that $39 billion in student loan forgiveness will be canceled for 804,000 borrowers.
According to a survey published on July 10 by the research organization NWEA, pupils nationwide have demonstrated a sharp and persistent drop in their academic performance, with many children learning at a slower rate than they were before the pandemic.
American education is in “state of emergency“
“The learning loss numbers we’re seeing and the nations report card scores that have come out since COVID have laid bare the fact that American education is really in a state of emergency,” said Morabito.
According to a published article from CNBC, if $39 billion student loan forgiveness were to fall out of the sky at random, I would recommend that we spend every last penny of it on the fundamentals of education rather than on regressive legislation.
American President Joe Biden and U.S. Miguel Cardona, Secretary of Education, June 30, 2023. (Photo: Getty Images)
According to a National Assessment of Educational Progress study released in June, reading scores for 13-year-olds this school year fell to a nearly 20-year low while math scores were at their lowest level since 1990.
The Supreme Court’s 6-3 ruling in June, which overturned one of the president’s key campaign promises—Biden’s anticipated $400 billion student loan forgiveness program—followed the announcement on Friday.
The president does not have the authority to cancel federal student loan forgiveness, Justice John Roberts argued in his ruling that the proposal was unconstitutional, citing Nancy Pelosi as the Speaker of the House in 2021.
The $39 billion in student loan debt forgiveness by the Biden administration “is very much, I think, a political decision,” Morabito said. “It doesn’t seem to have much of a legal basis, and I predict that this is not the end of the road; this will be contested in court.”
