The Biden administration has announced another round of canceled student loans, this time for $6.1 billion for 317,000 former students of the Art Institutes.
“This institution falsified data, knowingly misled students, and cheated borrowers into taking on mountains of debt without leading to promising career prospects at the end of their studies,” President Joe Biden said in a prepared statement.
Biden compared his approach to that of “my predecessor,” former President Donald Trump, who he said “looked the other way when colleges defrauded students and borrowers.”
However, conservatives and budget hawks argue it is taxpayers who are being hurt by Biden’s approach, as any loans that are not repaid will be added to the public debt.
The nonpartisan Committee for a Responsible Federal Budget released an estimate earlier this week that the combined total cost of Biden’s multifaceted student loans programs will cost between $870 billion and $1.4 trillion.
“That’s more than all federal spending on higher education over the nation’s entire history,” the think tank wrote in its analysis. “The vast majority of this debt cancellation was put in place through executive actions under President Biden.”
Congress has not approved the spending, which has led to lawsuits from GOP-led states charging that Biden’s actions are illegal.
However, the administration says it is helping younger people get out of debt in order to move ahead in life by getting married, buying a home, or starting a family or business.
“Over the last three years, my administration has approved nearly $29 billion in debt relief for 1.6 million borrowers whose colleges took advantage of them, closed abruptly, or were covered by related court settlements,” Biden said. “In total, we have approved debt cancellation for nearly 4.6 million Americans through various actions.”
Younger voters who attended college are seen as a key constituency for Democrats, meaning the cancellation could help drive turnout to the polls in November. Biden announced a previous student loans plan six weeks before the midterm elections, though it was ultimately ruled unconstitutional by the Supreme Court.
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Biden has continued implementing a series of new programs since that loss.
“We will never stop fighting to deliver relief to borrowers, hold bad actors accountable, and bring the promise of college to more Americans,” he said.
