At risk of being cancelled, I admit whole-scale student debt forgiveness doesn’t make perfect sense to me.

I believe in free housing, food, healthcare, and education. Public colleges should be free and debts owed them forgiven. I don’t feel the same way about private schools.

I can’t seem to find reliable data on who owes how much debt to what schools. I have heard that much of it is held by fancy law/medical/business school students who can easily pay it back. Maybe this isn’t true - but if it is, forgiving it doesn’t seem a good use of resources.

This leads to the “infinite vs finite resources” debate. If we have infinite resources, then sure, forgive it all - but make sure to care for the needs of the 65% who never attend college, too.

If resources are finite, then housing, food, and healthcare seem higher priorities.

As an educator, it’s hard to ignore how many education issues are actually poverty issues. We rely on education to solve societal problems that would be easier to solve directly. Many only go to school to further their chances at making a living - why not just give them a living?

The best argument for forgiving all student debt is that, for reasons I don’t understand, it seems more doable than other things. It’s a net positive and better than nothing, so I support it. It would help my family greatly.

I just hope it doesn’t have negative consequences...