What College Debt Forgiveness Would Mean for BSU Students
Student debt forgiveness and free college has been mentioned a lot by the 2020 Democratic presidential candidates. But what does it actually mean? Can all student debt really be vanished? If you’re Senator Bernie Sanders, then yes it can.
Sanders has a lot of big ideas of what an America under his presidency would look like and free college for all is one of them. He was quoted in The Washington Post saying, “In a generation hard hit by the Wall Street crash of 2008, it (his plan) forgives all student debt and ends the absurdity of sentencing an entire generation to a lifetime of debt for the ‘crime’ of getting a college education.”
The words ‘forgive all student debt’ sound extremely ambitious but it also begs the question: how can this be done? To Sanders the plan is simple, tax the richest people on Wall Street.
According to Bernie Sanders campaign site, placing a 0.5% tax on stock trades, a 0.1% fee on bond trades, and a 0.005% fee on derivative trades will generate about 2.4 trillion dollars over ten years. This is almost double the student loan debt in America which is 1.6 trillion dollars as of October 2019.
Bernie’s plan is multifaceted, but the main factors are: Cancel Debt and Free College.
So, what does that mean for students at Bridgewater? Well, when Bernie says Free College for All he means free College for ALL. His plan would make colleges, universities and trade schools free for all to attend, Bridgewater State University included.
So, what benefits would come from this plan? Well, as long as you’re not a Wall Street speculator, you’ll be making out pretty well. Besides the obvious benefit of not being burdened with a student loan bill there are a few more benefits to this plan. Sander’s idea is that without student loans, more Americans will be buying houses or starting businesses, and this will create more jobs which will give back to the economy.
Many other countries across the world have already put this plan in action including, Britain and France. Will America be the next?
