The Democrats want college to be the next big entitlement for Americans. Bernie Sanders came right out and proposed “free” college. It’s easy to see why they want it — more people beholden to big government, and at the same time, more people who have absorbed the increasingly leftist curriculum you find at most institutions.
Biden’s Education Department minions are proposing to make changes in federal student-loan policy that would make college nearly free for a great many borrowers. Beth Akers of AEI explains here the several “generous” moves the Department has in mind:
The proposed changes make this regime more generous in four distinct ways. First, they cut in half the share of income that borrowers are expected to put toward monthly payments, which slows their progress toward full repayment considerably. Second, they half the term over which borrowers are required to make payments before becoming eligible to have their balances forgiven (from 20 to 10 years.) Third, they increase the threshold of earnings below which borrowers aren’t expected to make any payments at all. Currently, individual borrowers earning less than about $20,000 aren’t expected to make payments. That would increase to about $30,000 under the proposed changes. And lastly, they excuse borrowers from paying the additional interest that accrues while they make reduced payments.
With the high thresholds and low monthly payments, a majority of student borrowers won’t even cover the interest on their loans, much less repay any of the principal. The taxpayers will end up subsidizing much more useless education than they already do.
The Education Department believes it can just make those changes in policy on its own. That should not be allowed to happen. The changes it proposes amount to new law with dramatic impacts on the country, including higher costs for taxpayers, higher tuition, maximum borrowing rather than relying on family resources and work, and lower student effort (the less of their own money students put into college, the less they’re apt to study). Under our Constitution, all legislative power is vested in Congress, and it is not allowed to delegate that power to Executive Branch bureaucrats. If the Department proceeds to institute its proposals, they ought to be nullified by the Supreme Court as ultra vires.