Student loan forgiveness is integral to society’s well-being

Opinion

Student loan forgiveness is an integral component of every individual’s success in their educational endeavors. Student loan forgiveness accounts for the costly prices of textbooks, tuition fees, and living expenses. Consequently, students, discounting their financial obstructions, can continue to persevere in their higher education. 

On Feb. 28, hundreds of protesting college students demanded that President Joe Biden must cancel the $400 million debt of student loans. Students were organized in Washington, D.C. Moreover, the students who protested reported being confined in thousands upon thousands of dollars in debt. 

President Biden issued a three-constituent plan in which the U.S. Department of Education would institute a maximum of $20,000 to Pell Grant recipients, undergraduates who are in major financial disparity, as well as $10,000 in debt cancellation to non-Pell Grant recipients. In addition, monthly payments would be reduced by half for undergraduate loans, correlating to the orthodox annual student loan payment being lowered by more than $1,000 for current and future borrowers. Further, President Biden has sworn to make community colleges free of tuition. 

I feel that student loan forgiveness must be consistently and constantly reinforced, and it is a matter which requires the utmost attention from all sectors of the U.S. government, including Congress. Student loan forgiveness, in my view, allows all individuals to acquire access to higher forms of education, setting aside the matters of finances and providing all with the opportunity to gain an education.

I firmly believe that a much larger and substantial emphasis on the sheer importance of student loan forgiveness, allowing all to be able to access education regardless of finances, will implement into our societies a much more sizable number of intelligent and high-minded citizens who will have higher living standards and contribute to the wellness of society. Education has always existed as a necessity of great importance. Education allows people to pursue higher career opportunities. 

English philosopher and Oxford academic, John Locke, wisely expresses the importance of education in his pamphlet, “Some Thoughts Concerning Education:” “The well educating of their children is so much the duty and concern of parents, and the welfare and prosperity of the nation so much depend on it, that I would have everyone lay it seriously to heart,” he wrote. Therefore, for one to be able to acquire an education, student debt forgiveness must be administered with much greater emphasis and importance instructed on it. 

Unfortunately, if student loan forgiveness is not enforced, then not all people will have access to education. Not all people will be able to ascertain a first-rate education because of their financial situation. And, the fact that the U.S. government pledged and guaranteed the public that the hundreds of billions of dollars of federal student debt would be canceled, but was not fulfilled, displays an abundantly clear symptom of apostasy within the government. Nonetheless, I admire that there are officials within the government who value student loan forgiveness and promote it. For example, Massachusetts Democratic Congresswoman Ayanna Pressley expressed to CNN her knowledge of student loan forgiveness from a personal point of view, “Well, what I was sharing is a story that is certainly no anomaly,’’ she stated. “This is a systemic crisis – a nearly $2 trillion crisis burning people from every walk of life.’’ 

Therefore, student loan forgiveness must be further reinforced by the government so that all individuals can attend and acquire a high level of education. The events which occurred on Feb. 28, illuminate in a broad perspective the lack of emphasis on student loan forgiveness and also the inconsistencies in the government with satisfying the demands of the public. In the end, I truly maintain my belief that student loan forgiveness is a crucial necessity in allowing all to become educated individuals who reside and walk in a democratic society. From those who had protested to the statement made by Democrat Ayanna Pressley, I do not feel that I stand alone in my argument that student loan forgiveness must be, in all respects, strengthened and the financial debt of students must be contained, without the government rendering false promises of meeting the requirements of the students who find themselves constricted in their financial obstructions.

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