Forgiveness Isn’t Divine When It Comes to Student Debt

Those who struggle the most are dropouts who owe a few thousand. Here’s a plan to target help to them

By Beth Akers. She is a senior fellow at the Manhattan Institute and author of “Game of Loans: The Rhetoric and Reality of Student Debt.”

"Contrary to the popular narrative, high earners bear an outsize share of student debt as they’re much likelier to have attended an expensive college and stayed longer, sometimes borrowing again for graduate or professional school. Sen. Elizabeth Warren’s plan phases out eligibility for the highest earners but is still highly regressive overall. According to the Brookings Institution, the bottom 60% of borrowers by income would receive only about a third of the financial benefits of Ms. Warren’s plan."

"Those who struggle the most to make payments tend to have only a few thousand dollars in debt. Delinquency and default are most frequent among borrowers with less than $5,000 in debt, because many of them didn’t finish college. An effective debt-relief program would focus on aiding this class of loan recipients."