Just Cancel Student Loan Interest, Not The Debt [OPINION]

When Joe Biden began his campaign for President in 2020 one of his first pledges was to cancel some, if not all, student loan debt. Current and former college students are currently a total of $1.73 trillion dollars in debt.

That obviously hasn't happened for a number of reasons. Some people are concerned about how that money will be made up in the budget. After all, the money was already paid out and presumably spent.

Others say it wouldn't be fair to people who have already had and paid off student loans in the past. Why should other people be 'bailed out' when they worked hard to just pay it off as promised.

I actually tend to agree with both of those schools of thought. At the same time, there are way too many people in the country overwhelmed by student debt. No matter the reason or who is to blame, it is a very real problem with very real consequences for individuals and even the American economy.

The obvious answer to the problem would be to forgive student loan interest but not the principal. In addition, allow underwater borrowers the option to settle the debt for a reasonable cost, like virtually every other debt known to man.

For me personally, unless I can pay back $745 a month toward my loan, I will never be done paying it because of the interest. No one at St. Cloud State bothered to tell me that part of the story when they were encouraging me to take out every last cent I qualified for each semester, above and beyond my actual tuition cost.

I agreed to take out the loans. I want to pay back the money I borrowed. However, I will never realistically be able to pay it back due to the soaring daily interest that is tacked on.

Forgiving student loan interest would allow struggling folks to get their loans paid off while still satisfying a large chunk of the federal student loan debt we now face.