Student Union
Student Loan Forgiveness Plan Receives More Scrutiny
Student loan forgiveness sounds like a good deal to many debtors, but since President Joe Biden suggested some form of federal student loan forgiveness, experts and debtors have been debating what that should look like.
“There isn't an American Dream anymore, especially if you went to college and had to borrow for it,” said Tracy Musick, who earned her master’s degree in library science from North Carolina Central University in 2011.
“I was actually in a better position when I was selling makeup, and didn't have a degree at all,” Musick said, adding that she would like to own a house and prosper on her own, but feels like she is weighed down by the debt.
Biden has suggested student loan debt forgiveness but has not yet published specific measures. Democratic Senators Chuck Schumer of New York and Elizabeth Warren of Massachusetts have proposed up to $50,000 in debt forgiveness, but no legislation has been formalized.
“The President continues to support the canceling of student debt to bring relief to students and families,” Biden press secretary Jen Psaki tweeted on February 4. “Our team is reviewing whether there are any steps he can take through executive action, and he would welcome the opportunity to sign a bill sent to him by Congress.”
But economic experts say the words “loan forgiveness” may lead to inaccurate assumptions.
“Overall, we find balance forgiveness to be a highly regressive policy,” wrote Sylvain Catherine, professor of finance at the Wharton School of the University of Pennsylvania, and Constantine Yannelis, a professor at the University of Chicago’s Booth School of Business, in The Distributional Effects of Student Loan Forgiveness.
Catherine and Yannelis say debtors in upper economic levels would receive a greater benefit than economically disadvantaged debtors, who need the relief the most, Catherine said in a Wharton podcast.
“If a comprehensive loan-forgiveness program were passed, we calculate that the average person in the top 10% of earners would receive $5,944 in forgiveness, while the average individual in the bottom 10 percent of earners would receive $1,070,” they wrote in The Washington Post.
Catherine told VOA that enrolling more people in income-driven repayment plans is better for the bottom 30% than forgiving $10,000, and it also is less expensive to taxpayers.
Student debt is a fierce topic for many Americans because it is larger than all credit card debt. Outstanding student loan debt is held by nearly 43 million people, totaling more than $1.5 trillion, according to Federal Student Aid. Many debtors say they cannot move on with life milestones, such as getting married, having children or buying a home, under so much debt.
Experts at the Brookings Institution in Washington point out that one-third of all student loan debt is owed by only 6% of borrowers, typically students pursuing or who achieved their master’s and doctoral degrees.
Cody Hounanian is a student debtor and program director at Student Debt Crisis, a nonprofit dedicated to reforming student debt and loan policies for higher education. Founded in 2011, it advocates for private and federal student loan borrowers in the U.S. and works with other national groups.
Student Debt Crisis and more than 325 organizations re-released a letter February 5 calling on Biden to forgive student loan debt.
“As a group that represents 2 million supporters with very diverse perspectives and experiences … we are very supportive of [forgiving] $50,000 in student loan debt,” Hounanian said.
Another strategy, Hounanian said, might include debt restructuring, meaning borrowers with high interest rates would be able to refinance at lower rates, similar to what homeowners do with their mortgages as those bank interest rates drop.
“I look at this as another common-sense solution because anyone with any other type of loan — including a car loan, or a home loan — they're familiar with the idea of refinancing,” he said.
A report by the Association of Community College Trustees in December 2020 found that, in the case of Valencia College students in Orlando, Florida, those who defaulted on their loans typically suffered academically.
“Default does not impact all borrowers equally: Students who have stopped out or who have completed some college credits but have not yet earned a degree or credential are especially at risk for default,” the report stated.
“Non-traditional-age students, students of color and low-income students are also at greater risk,” it stated. “The median defaulter owes less than $10,000, and students with the smallest amounts of debt are the most likely to default.”
As of 2019, Musick owed about $80,000 in federal loans for her master’s degree — plus at least $3,000 in interest. She said she currently is not sure how much she owes exactly.
“All of the payments that I've made have only been to interest — none of it has touched the principal,” she said. “That means that my loan is actually growing.”
But some others see student loan forgiveness in a different light.
“I’ve paid off nearly all of my student loan debt in the last 10 months and NOW there is talk of canceling it?!” Maria Ducato, of Florida, tweeted with a .gif of Friends actor Matthew Perry repeatedly banging his head against a plank.
“What about the people [like me] who minimized their need for student loans and then paid back those loans like a responsible adult?” replied Julie Coffman to Psaki’s tweet.
See all News Updates of the Day
- By VOA News
International students have options to pay for grad school
U.S. News & World Report tackles the challenges of paying for grad school as an international student with this story giving tips on paying for school. Read the full story here. (August 2024)
- By Tracy Liu
Economics, tensions blamed for Chinese students shifting from US to Australia, Britain
U.S. universities are welcoming international students as the academic year begins. But while the total number of foreign students is steadily growing, the top sending country, China, is showing signs of leveling out or shrinking.
Industry analysts say the negative trend is mainly due to higher costs amid China’s struggling economy, with a growing number of students going to less expensive countries like Australia and Britain, and tense ties between Washington and Beijing.
The number of foreign students studying in the U.S. in 2022-23 passed 1 million for the first time since the COVID pandemic, said Open Doors, an information resource on international students and scholars.
While the U.S. saw a nearly 12% total increase year-on-year for that period, the number of international students from China, its top source, fell by 0.2% to 289,526.
That’s 600 fewer students than the 2021-22 academic year, when their numbers dropped by nearly 9%. The COVID pandemic saw Chinese student numbers drop in 2020-21 by nearly 15%, in line with the world total drop.
While it’s not yet clear if the drop is a leveling out or a fluctuating decline, analysts say China’s struggling economy and the high cost of studying in the U.S. are the main reasons for the fall in student numbers.
Vincent Chen, a Chinese study abroad consultant based in Shanghai, said although most of his clients are still interested in studying in the U.S., there is a clear downward trend, while applicants for Anglophone universities in Australia and Britain have been increasing.
"If you just want to go abroad, a one-year master's degree in the U.K. is much cheaper,” Chen said. “Many people can't afford to study in the U.S., so they have to settle for the next best thing."
Data from the nonprofit U.S. group College Board Research shows that in the 2023-24 academic year, the average tuition and fees for a U.S. private college four-year education increased 4% to $41,540 compared with the previous academic year.
The British Council said three to four years of undergraduate tuition in Britain starts as low as $15,000.
The number of Chinese students in Britain was 154,260 in 2022-23, according to the U.K. Higher Education Statistics Agency, HESA, up from 121,145 in the 2018/19 academic year.
Australia’s Home Affairs office said in the 2023-24 program year, China was the top source foreign country for new student visa grants at 43,389, up slightly (1.5%) from the previous year.
Chen said Chinese state media's negative portrayal of the United States and concerns about discrimination have also contributed to the shift.
Bruce Zhang, a Chinese citizen who received his master's degree in Europe after studying in China, told VOA Mandarin he had such an incident occur to him after he was admitted to a U.S. university’s Ph.D. program.
When he entered Boston's Logan International Airport last year, Zhang said customs officers questioned him for more than an hour about his research, and if it had any links to the military, and took his computer and mobile phone for examination.
"Fortunately, I had heard that U.S. customs might be stringent in inspecting Chinese students, so I had relatively few study-related data and documents on my personal computer," he said.
Zhang was allowed to enter the U.S. for his studies in materials science, but the questioning left him so rattled that he has encouraged other Chinese to study elsewhere.
Cui Kai, a study abroad consultant in Massachusetts told VOA Mandarin that experiences like Zhang’s or worse happen for a reason.
"Students who were questioned or their visas were revoked at the customs are usually those who completed their undergraduate studies in China and come to the U.S. for a master's or doctoral degree in a sensitive major," said Cui.
Former President Donald Trump signed Proclamation 10043 in June 2020, prohibiting visas for any Chinese student who “has been employed by, studied at, or conducted research at or on behalf of, an entity in the PRC that implements or supports the PRC's “military-civil fusion strategy.”
The U.S. says China has been using students and scholars to gain access to key technology and, under Proclamation 10043, revoked more than 1,000 visas issued to Chinese nationals and has denied thousands more.
Critics say the policy is costly to the U.S. and is encouraging Chinese students to look to European and other universities.
Adrianna Zhang contributed to this report.
- By VOA News
Duolingo report details the reality of Gen Z international students
A report by Duolingo takes a look at the experiences of Gen Z international students studying in the U.S., Australia and the U.K, The Pie reports.
The report, the site says, debunks "characterizations of them as 'tech-obsessed, attention-deficit and self-centered'" and highlights "their emerging role in shaping global politics and economics."
Read the full story here. (August 2024)
- By VOA News
School with the lowest costs for international students
U.S. News & World Report crunched the numbers and came up with a list of 20 U.S. colleges and universities with annual total costs at or below $20,184. Check out these best bargains for international students here. (August 2024)
- By VOA News
How to make the most of schools' international student services
U.S. colleges and universities offer a variety of services for international students.
U.S. News & World Report takes a look at them and details how to best use them. Read the article here. (June 2024)
