Joe Biden said during his presidential campaign that he would reduce student debt for millions of Americans, but his allies remain divided on the issue, and some of his supporters are losing hope he will deliver, the Wall Street Journal reported. Nearly 43 million Americans carry some form of student debt. As a candidate, Mr. Biden endorsed canceling $10,000 in student debt per borrower through legislation and proposed forgiving tuition-related federal debt for people who earned undergraduate degrees at public colleges and universities, as well as schools that historically serve Black and minority students. All told, Americans owe around $1.6 trillion in federal student loans and more than $130 billion in private student loans, according to the data firm MeasureOne. Legislative efforts to forgive student debt have sputtered in Congress, and progressive lawmakers are ratcheting up pressure on Mr. Biden to take executive action, calling on him to cancel up to $50,000 in debt per borrower. Many Republicans oppose debt cancellation. House Republican lawmakers argued in a letter last year that doing so would be “an affront to the millions of borrowers who responsibly repaid their loan balances.”
