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Writer's pictureKenyatta Victoria

Questions Raised After Joe Biden Rejects Student Debt Forgiveness Plan


Photo Credit- Leah Millis

President Joe Biden sparked some controversy after his Presidential town hall meeting on Feb. 16, 2021.


As the President answers citizens' questions, he is asked about student loan debt forgiveness is more than just $10,000.


As he is requested to raise the amount to $50,000, his response sparked a conversation throughout social media.


“I will not make that happen. It depends on whether or not you go to a private university or public university,” Biden said. “It depends on the idea that I say to a community that I am going to forgive the debt, the billions of dollars to debt for people who have gone to Harvard and Yale and Penn… Is that going to be forgiven rather than use that money to provide for early education?”

This raised several eyebrows simply because many students within any school, whether private or public, are enduring a great amount of student debt well over $50,000.


“Everyone should be able to go to community college for free,” Biden said. What is confusing citizens the most is that he does not think all students should receive student loan forgiveness.

How this connects to the Black community would be how Black students are already disadvantaged when it comes to schools.



Biden insinuated that students should be able to work off their student debt after college as his children did. “My point is, I understand the impact of the debt, and it can be debilitating,” he said.

Many Black and minority students could look at his statements as giving false hope because several students are drowning in debt and loans, unable to work it off and continue to go for their goals.


“So that’s why I provide, for example, $80 billion-$70 billion over 10 years for HBCUs and other minority-serving universities because they don’t have the laboratories to be able to bring in those government contracts that can train people in cybersecurity or other future endeavors that pay well,” Biden said.


As an HBCU student, there are several issues with this situation simply because most HBCUs are private institutions.



Many Black students have no choice when it comes to taking out a plethora of student loans because these private institutions are so expensive.


Throughout Biden’s campaign, the main thing he enforced for the Black community was his plan for student loan forgiveness, specifically for HBCU students.



What this could do within the Black community is make people think that his campaign was not honest and that Biden did not keep his word.


What viewers can take away from the town hall meeting would be the importance of students knowing their worth, expressing their need to help themselves, and questioning those in authority to receive change.


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