The Biden Administration’s Unconstitutional Student Loan Cancellation Plans & Congress’s Responsibility To Address The Root Cause Of The Student Loan Crisis

James M. Truett (J.D. 2024, Louisiana State), Comment, Congress, Tear Down This Educational Wall: The Biden Administration's Unconstitutional Student Loan Cancellation Plans & Congress's Responsibility to Address the Root Cause of the Student Loan Crisis, 84 La. L. Rev. 625 (2024): 

The goal of student loan programs is to offer students financial assistance and to give the students an opportunity to receive an education. However, as an entire country, the United States has lost sight of this once revolutionary and effective goal. Student loans cause more harm than benefit by imposing enormous amounts of debts on to teenagers who just want a chance to receive an education. The harms certainly outweigh the benefits for recent graduates who will not take their dream job because it will not pay enough to finance their student loan repayments. While the burden of repaying student loans should remain with the students, universities must be held accountable for their predatory financial practices.

However, President Biden’s student loan cancellation plans do the exact opposite and shift the burden to repay student loans not to students or universities but to individual taxpayers. Likewise, mass student loan cancellation will not solve the student loan crisis for future generations of Americans. A meager $10,000 cancellation or one-time account adjustment under the IDR and PSLF forgiveness programs will not lower tuition costs for the future and will have minimal effect for future generations of Americans. Therefore, it is crucial that Congress enacts comprehensive student loan reform by implementing a market share endowment tax program. A market share endowment tax holds universities, not individual taxpayers, accountable for the predatory financial practices imposed on teenagers. Further, a market share endowment tax will solve the student loan crisis for future generations of Americans—the United States can revert to the true purpose of this once revolutionary and effective goal. Unfortunately, until Congress implements a market share endowment tax, this educational wall will stand in all American students’ paths. 

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