To many, student debt is a young people’s issue. But last week, dozens of borrowers age 50 and over traveled to Washington to remind policymakers that it’s increasingly becoming a problem for older Americans like them.
That is, of course, their problem to fix as well. It does not belong to the taxpayers.
The message the borrowers had for staff in congressional offices, the Department of Education and the White House: They don’t want to die still owing. Or as Becki Wells, 63, put it: “We know the only thing standing between us and student-loan relief is political will — and death.”
Political will = taxpayers’ money.
Though more people in their 20s, 30s and 40s have student debt, borrowers over 60 are the fastest-growing population of student-loan borrowers by age. In some cases, these borrowers took on the debt to help pay for their children’s education. In other cases, they borrowed later in life to facilitate their own career advancement. In some situations, the debt they hold is decades old.
Speaking as someone who had student loans and repaid them, I do not understand why they think they are entitled to free money. If the borrower was defrauded in some fashion—and there have been some shady “educational” institutions—certainly there is some culpability by the government in not sufficiently regulating the institutions. Student debt forgiven in such a situation makes sense, and we’ve already done this. These are not the people this story is talking about.
Some student loans also come with a proviso that if the borrow works in public service for a period of time—I think typically at least 10 years—the debt will be forgiven. Again, no problem if this is part of the contract. This is also not who the story is talking about.
Otherwise, if person takes a loan, derives the benefits of said loan, it should be their responsibility to repay the loan. I am hard-pressed to figure out why age would make any difference here.