Local student welcomes Biden’s student loan forgiveness proposal

HORRY COUNTY, S.C. (WMBF) - A key issue of President Joe Biden’s presidential campaign was to provide some forgiveness to federal student loans.

Biden has proposed offering up to $10,000 in federal student loan forgiveness. However, Democrats in the U.S. House and Senate want to raise the amount of forgiveness to $50,000.

More than 40 million Americans are in student loan debt, with the total around $1.6 trillion.

For students like Coastal Carolina University freshman Alexandra Collman, the forgiveness has the potential to help a significant amount.

“Every little bit helps, even a 100 dollar scholarship,” Collman said. “From this proposal, I think it shows college prices have jobs incredibly high and nothing else has changed. It’s just ridiculously expensive and it’s become less and less affordable for anybody.”

Dr. Elaine Maimon, former university president and current author and advisor, also weighed in on the proposal to provide some forgiveness of student loans.

Originally, Biden proposed the loan forgiveness to those community-service based, but is now expected to call on Congress to forgive student loan debt for all borrowers.

Maimon said as for the school and who would pay them for the education provided, the schools have already received the money from the loan. Maimon said the help is strictly forgiveness to the student and added the call is a “no brainer.”

“It’s going to be a great sense of morale boosting, encouragement, to people who are dealing with all the worries of student debt and trying to get their lives on track and their professions started. I just think it’s almost a no brainer that this ought to be done,” Maimon said.

It’s important to note nothing is set in stone yet and could be a while before people see anything.

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