Emily owes $60,000 for an art degree she never finished. Her payments, from her job delivering food, reduce the interest but aren't enough to pay down the principal. Recruited to shop with fake credit cards, she becomes Emily the Criminal.
Though she takes to crime, Emily remains determined to pay back her student loans. I was impressed. Most people in her situation -- and with her not-so-underlying anger -- would default. Paying back student loans is for chumps.
Biden's Education Department e-mailed debtors this week urging them not to make loan payments in January. Payments have been suspended for another six months. Two lawsuits blocking the president's executive order forgiving student debt will be heard on Feb. 28.
Unsustainable college costs have burdened young Americans with nearly $400 billion in student loan debt, writes Chris Quintana in USA TODAY. President Biden's plan debt relief is "a bust."
The administration has expanded debt forgiveness for borrowers in government jobs and those who enrolled in "predatory" colleges, he writes. It's expanded income-based repayment plans.
“Nobody is addressing the root cause of the problem, which is the high cost of postsecondary education,” said Rep. Virginia Foxx, R-North Carolina, and ranking member on the House Committee on Education and Labor. “This is basically a Band-Aid on the problem.”
When he announced his student loan debt forgiveness plan, Biden pledged to hold "colleges accountable for jacking up costs without delivering value to students,” recalls Quintana.
That doesn't happen, said Beth Akers, a senior fellow at the American Enterprise Institute. There's no accountability for colleges with low graduation rates -- unless they're for-profit colleges.
The list of colleges with low-earning, high-debt students contains many art schools.