A recent Supreme Court decision regarding student loans should not be the final word on the issue. Debt is hampering young adults and their ability to accumulate wealth in a manner afforded to previous generations, and it warrants attention from Congress.
According to federal data, more than 45 million people in the United States owe $1.6 trillion in federal education loans. That includes more than 800,000 Washington residents, who have a cumulative debt of approximately $28 billion — not including education loans through private lenders.
It is easy to see how that limits the ability of young adults to purchase a home or start a business, and how it can impact their decision about whether or not to start a family. In other words, it limits their ability to fully partake of American society and begin feathering a comfortable nest for themselves and their offspring.
As that debt grows for each succeeding generation, President Joe Biden has sought to relieve the burden. Biden promised to eliminate $400 billion in federal student loans, vowing to help borrowers “crawl out from under that mountain of debt.”
But in a 6-3 decision last month, the Supreme Court ruled that the action overstepped presidential authority and, therefore, was unconstitutional. Indeed, no president should be able to unilaterally wipe out $400 billion that is owed to taxpayers; only Congress has that power. The court ruled a president may not make that decision, but not on whether it was wise policy.
Meanwhile, the wrangling over student debt has obscured the real issue — the cost of college and the impact it has on the finances of families and young adults. Even after adjusting for inflation, the average tuition at a public four-year college has more than doubled over the past 30 years.
Much of that is due to states reducing funding for public institutions — or not providing funding that keeps up with inflation. In 2020, the National Education Association determined that 32 states were spending less on public colleges and universities than they were in 2008. The Great Recession caused many states to slash public investments, and most had not fully replaced those funds more than a decade later.
That change has been building for generations. In 1976, state governments provided 60 percent of funding for state institutions of higher learning; now, the burden increasingly falls to students.
Washington has somewhat bucked that trend. According to the National Science Foundation, in 2000 our state ranked 28th in per-student funding for state schools; by 2021 it ranked ninth. But on a national scale, the increase in tuition — and the resulting dependency on student loans — has played a large role in diminishing America’s middle class.
As Caitlin Zaloom, a professor at New York University, wrote for the New York Times in 2019: “Paying the high cost of college also means jeopardizing the long-term financial security of the parents. The more parents spend on their children’s education, the less they have in their retirement accounts.”
A college education is not a requirement for middle-class status, and families increasingly are choosing a different path. But there is something wrong with a system that removes large numbers of parents from the middle class while also burdening their children with debt.
No single action regarding student loans or tuition costs can reverse that trend. But as Congress takes up the issue — rather than waiting for a president to address it — members must take a holistic approach to bolstering America’s middle class.
