How student debt relief works
Post Reports
The Washington Post
4.4 • 5.1K Ratings
🗓️ 25 August 2022
⏱️ 27 minutes
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Summary
President Biden’s new plan to cancel some student loan debt will impact millions of Americans. On today’s “Post Reports,” we learn how this program works, what it means for the economy and why some people are unhappy with this approach.
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Millions of Americans rely on the federal government to cover the cost of college. Soaring tuition costs, higher enrollment and changes to the federal lending system have all contributed to the $1.6 trillion in outstanding federal student debt.
This week, President Biden announced a plan to cancel up to $10,000 in federal student loan debt for many borrowers, and up to $20,000 for Pell Grant recipients.
National higher education reporter Danielle Douglas-Gabriel provides a walkthrough of who qualifies for the plan and the arguments for and against this massive debt forgiveness.
Transcript
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| 0:00.0 | Something big happened this week for the millions of people in this country who owe money |
| 0:06.3 | in student loans. |
| 0:08.2 | This is historic. |
| 0:09.4 | There has been nothing like this on this magnitude of education debt cancellation on record. |
| 0:18.2 | That's Danielle Douglas Gabriel, National Higher Education reporter for the Post, and she's |
| 0:23.6 | talking about President Biden's announcement this week. |
| 0:27.2 | The Department of Education will forgive $10,000 in a person's outstanding federal student |
| 0:33.6 | loans, and up to $20,000 for those people who received needs-based pell grants. |
| 0:41.2 | Both of these targeted actions are for families who need it the most, working in middle-class |
| 0:46.5 | people, hit especially hard during the pandemic, making under $125,000 a year. |
| 0:55.2 | Regardless of where you fall on whether it should have happened, whether more could have happened, |
| 0:59.9 | this is still a fairly historic moment for not only this administration, but for our country |
| 1:07.1 | in terms of how we're looking at consumer debt and the burden it has on the economy. |
| 1:14.4 | And yet, as Danielle notes, there are people who are divided on this. |
| 1:18.8 | Endering whether canceling hundreds of billions of dollars of debt like this goes too far, or |
| 1:25.9 | not far enough. |
| 1:31.2 | From the newsroom of the Washington Post, this is Post Reports. |
| 1:34.5 | I'm Ella Hay-Ezadi, Infermartine Powers. |
| 1:38.5 | It's Thursday, August 25. |
| 1:40.5 | Today, I talk with Danielle about the ins and outs of student loan forgiveness. |
| 1:46.2 | How exactly is this going to work? |
| 1:49.0 | What does this mean for the economy and people's lives? |
... |
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