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Student debt forgiveness: Relief for some, 'immoral' to others

Author: Editors Desk Source: BBC News:
August 26, 2022 at 07:52
MATTHEW HENDERSON / Matthew Henderson, 23, is happy some of his loans will be forgiven but says more could be done
MATTHEW HENDERSON / Matthew Henderson, 23, is happy some of his loans will be forgiven but says more could be done
A White House decision to cancel up to $10,000 (£8,500) in student loan debt is drawing mixed reactions across the US.

When Matthew Henderson graduated from Loyola University, he had limited his borrowing as much as possible.

Keen to pay off the roughly $20,000 he owed the federal government for his three-year programme, he began looking for work.

But it was May 2020, a pandemic was raging and nobody was hiring.

The political science and history major opted to further his education with a master's in legal studies from Washington University in St Louis. It's a decision that has cost him dearly.

"Even though it was only an accelerated one-year programme, it still cost about $60,000, which was pretty much funded entirely through student loans," he said.

"I suddenly went from a potentially payable amount to an exorbitant amount of debt."

Mr Henderson, 23, is among the one in five Americans - or roughly 45 million people - who hold student loans. Together they owe the government a combined total of $1.6tn in debt and interest payments, according to the Federal Reserve.

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