WASHINGTON– At a campaign rally in April, President Joe Biden spoke to a crowd in Wisconsin about his latest “life-changing” student loan forgiveness plan, promising financial aid to more than 30 million Americans.
But Kamala Harris has avoided that question at her political events since replacing Biden as the Democratic presidential nominee. The vice president’s program only mentions it twice, and without a specific plan. As she courts moderate voters, Harris has focused on policies targeting Americans without college degrees.
“For too long, our nation has encouraged only one path to success: a four-year college degree,” Harris said in September in Wilkes-Barre, Pennsylvania. “Our nation must recognize the value of other paths. »
In just a few years, student loan forgiveness has gone from being a pillar of the Democratic Party to becoming a political responsibility. Once considered a surefire way to energize young voters, this issue has now become a cudgel wielded by Republicans who say it gives an advantage to elites and comes at the expense of those who have repaid their loans or who have not. did not attend university.
The issue was raised only once during the September presidential debate, when Republican Donald Trump criticized Harris and Biden for failing to follow through on their promise of widespread cancellation. The former president called it a “total disaster” that was “taunting young people.”
“They couldn’t even get a student loan,” Trump said.
Biden, who once questioned the legality of mass student loan forgiveness, campaigned on the issue after progressives like Sen. Bernie Sanders, I-Vt., made it a mainstream idea. But as president, Biden faced relentless challenges from Republican opponents. For the estimated 42 million people with federal student loans, hope for forgiveness has turned to resignation and disillusionment.
Biden’s first plan to cancel up to $20,000 for millions of people was blocked by the Supreme Court last year. A second, narrower plan was halted by a federal judge after Republican-led states sued. A separate policy aimed at reducing loan payments for struggling borrowers was suspended by a judge, also after Republican-controlled states challenged it.
The Biden administration launched a new effort to cancel student loans on Friday, this one targeting Americans who face heavy financial burdens beyond their student loans. He faces an uncertain future, arriving less than two weeks before the November 5 election.
Legal uncertainty likely contributed to Harris’ lack of emphasis on overturning, said Michelle Dimino, education program director at the centrist think tank Third Way. It’s also a problem her base knows well, she added.
“She can’t offer much new until we know what happens in court,” Dimino said. When Biden first proposed a broad rollback, it was something that had not yet been attempted. “Now it’s a totally different landscape than it was in 2020, when it was a blank slate.”
Harris’ silence also signals political risks, especially in a close election. Any new promise of loan forgiveness would energize Republicans who have made it a rallying cry. For voters who could benefit from an override, it’s a promise they’ve heard before.
“The Harris campaign realized that this was not necessarily a winning policy issue,” said Preston Cooper, a senior fellow at the American Enterprise Institute.
“The student loan program is in tatters and hasn’t really helped them win votes,” Cooper said.
Even moderate Americans seem skeptical about student loan forgiveness. A June poll by the University of Chicago Harris School of Public Policy and the Associated Press-NORC Center for Public Affairs Research found that 3 in 10 American adults said they approved of Biden’s work on the student debt, and it wasn’t much better among those. repay loans. Just over half of Democrats said they support the president’s job, while 18% of independents said the same.
The Harris campaign declined to provide details or answer questions about her cancellation plan.
His platform mentions student loans only after a full page of policies targeting workers without degrees. At the September rally in Pennsylvania, Harris drew applause when she said she would remove unnecessary degree requirements for federal jobs. She didn’t mention student loans in her 20-minute speech.
“Requiring a certain degree doesn’t necessarily mean you have skills,” Harris told the audience at Wilkes University, a private college in northeastern Pennsylvania.
Harris’ comments echo a traditional Republican argument that is increasingly embraced by Democrats as more Americans question the value of a college degree.
“Student loan forgiveness is…perhaps alienating some of the support that Harris hopes to get from non-graduates,” said Andrew Gillen, a researcher at the Center for Educational Freedom. ‘Cato Libertarian Institute. “These kinds of polarizing topics poison the well for other things that have bipartisan support.” Once issues like student loan forgiveness are resolved, I believe this bipartisan agreement will see much more emerge.
This is one of the few areas of common ground between Harris and Trump.
In his platform, the former Republican president said he would “support the creation of additional, significantly more affordable alternatives to the traditional four-year college degree.” It does not mention loans. Trump opposed the cancellation, saying it was illegal.
“President Trump will implement real solutions to make education, housing and the cost of living affordable again for young people so they can live the American dream,” Karoline Leavitt told the AP. national press secretary for Trump’s 2024 presidential campaign.
Student loan advocates point to Trump’s vague promises, failure to address public service loan forgiveness and judicial appointments that blocked broad student debt relief. “Trump is proud of his work to harm working families,” said Melissa Byrne, a political organizer who pushed for the reversal.
As California attorney general, Harris led efforts to penalize for-profit colleges for defrauding borrowers. As a presidential candidate in 2019, Harris proposed a narrower path to loan forgiveness than those proposed by Sanders and Sen. Elizabeth Warren, D-Mass. Harris’ plan would have provided $20,000 in relief to any federal Pell Grant recipient who started a business in 2019 in a disadvantaged community and kept it running for three years.
After the Biden administration announced this month that it had forgiven loans for more than 1 million government workers, Harris issued a statement applauding the work, once again promising generally to continue delivering ” higher education more affordable.
Aissa Canchola Bañez, policy director of Protect Borrowers Action, said Harris’ track record on student debt relief suggests she would follow through on commitments made under Biden.
“This is an issue she worked on long before she came to Washington, D.C.,” Canchola Bañez said, noting the unprecedented amount of student debt canceled under the Biden administration. “We saw the vice president applaud very loudly for the relief shown thus far.”
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