Views on Student Loan Forgiveness Across Generations

A native of Wisconsin, John Gardner worked hard throughout school to pay for his loans. Gardner said he never took time off and slowly chipped away at his student debt. Gardner’s hard work paid off, and he eliminated the loans. Gardner is now retired from selling insurance and lives in a house he built himself in Fall River, Wisconsin.

Gardner said back in the 80s he paid around $1200 per semester. Gardner said that he had about $2,500 in student loans to pay when he graduated. He paid the brunt of the debt by working in the summer for a plane parts manufacturer.

According to educationdata.org, 30% of all adults incur some type of educational debt. Educationdata.org also says that 93% of adults with outstanding debt have student loan debt and $85 billion of student loan debt is overdue.

“I do not think that student loan forgiveness was the right angle,” said Gardner.

Gardner feels this way because of all the people that have already paid their student loans. Gardner said it is not fair to those people.

“I don’t think there was enough imagination or time put into coming up with alternative options,” said Gardner.

Gardner said he feels that one way that student loans could be changed is by implementing a 0% interest rate on student loans.

“Taking out loans is a choice people make,” said Linda Dulka.

Dulka is a Milwaukee Native who lives on disability following a stroke.

Dulka also said that it is unfair to the people who worked hard to pay their loans back.

Dulka went to UWM for a year and then decided to drop out and go to MATC. She made this decision in part because of how much cheaper it was. Dulka said that in the 80s MATC’s classes per semester were just $600.

Brian Schwartz is an Engineering major at UWM. Schwartz started college off with student loans. Schwartz has since worked hard academically and has received scholarships that have paid for the student loans that he took out early on in college.

“The student debt crisis itself is dumb and predatory, it shouldn’t have existed in the first place,” said Schwartz.

Schwartz feels higher education should be a given and funded by the government. Schwartz said if Americans have to pay a little bit more in taxes to have free higher education, so be it.

“I do believe the student loan forgiveness plan was the right thing to do,” he said.

Schwartz compared student debt to the housing crisis in 2008. Schwartz said that the same idea is being applied to student loans, and the government is lending money to people that cannot afford to pay the loans back.

“People are signing up for a loan that they do not know the implications of,” he said.

Timothy Opgnorth, financial director at UWM, says students have to take tutorials called entrance counseling.

 The counseling is supposed to educate students on what they are getting into when they take out a student loan.

“I think that all students will have accountability to get forgiven,” said Opgnorth.

Opgnorth said that NAFSA is one of the best organizations with alternatives to the student loan forgiveness plan.

NAFSA is an organization that aspires to integrate international perspectives into higher education. NAFSA has also taken an interest in student debt and how to combat it, creating plans that have been proposed to Congress.

Reese Barber recently graduated from UWM. Barber said that he might be biased toward the student loan forgiveness plan because he is receiving forgiveness but feels that this is a step in the right direction.

Barber feels empathetic toward the people that have to take student loans to get a four-year degree.

 “It is not terrible, but being in debt definitely does not feel great,” said Barber.

Barber said that he paid for half his college from his savings and the other half through student loans. A full-time semester’s worth of classes cost him $6,500.

Barber said the student loans have yet to affect him because of the pause the federal government put on payments. He worries that the loans will start to affect him more when he has to make the minimum payment, but loan forgiveness will help.

“I think the student debt crisis is definitely concerning,” he said.