The first person with that title to call for broad student-debt cancellation was the Education secretary of Barack Obama.
He thinks President Joe Biden can shoot higher than the $10,000 in loan forgiveness he promised on the campaign trail.
John King told Insider that the proposal from Senator Warren and Senator Schumer makes a lot of sense. That would be a great step forward.
In an opinion piece for Insider last month, King detailed why Biden should be able to cancel student debt. In a later interview with Insider, he explained that the Pandemic presents a unique case for student-loan relief compared to when he served as Obama's Education secretary. King said that borrowers need more after their payments have been paused for two years. Lawmakers and advocates argue that May 1 is too soon to impose another bill on 43 million students.
—John King for Governor of Maryland (@JohnBKing) February 23, 2022
As the country is recovering from the Pandemic, it is the perfect time to correct the lack of investment in higher education.
The opportunity to emerge from the COVID economic crisis with a New Deal moment where we tackle deeper systemic challenges is what King said.
King said that the lack of free community college and limited aid for low-income students is a policy failure that needs to be corrected. He pointed out that the grant for students that accounted for 80% of the cost of college in the 1980s now covers less than a third due to soaring tuition.
This is a good time to correct a policy mistake of the last 40 years in terms of federal and state disinvestment in public higher education.
King was disappointed that free community college could not be achieved due to a Republican majority in Congress. Biden wants to raise the maximum Pell Grant award to increase college accessibility for low-income students.
Biden said during an October CNN town hall that he would be sleeping alone for a long time if he did not get free community college.
Lawmakers have floated the idea of putting tuition-free community college to student-loan relief to prevent debt from rising. The policy measure should be tied to student-debt relief in order to fix the current problem and prevent it from happening again.
King worked with Obama to reform forgiveness for students defrauded by for-profit schools and to ensure monthly payments were affordable for borrowers through income-driven repayment plans.
Biden has made strides in these two areas, but he has yet to fulfill his campaign pledge to cancel debt broadly. The White House has said many times that if Congress sends a bill to Biden, he will sign it. Biden asked the Education Department to prepare a memo on his legal ability to wipe out student debt, despite his opposition to using an executive order.
King believes that the authority is allowed under the Higher Education Act if the contents of the memo are released.
The authority is there, according to the lawyers who looked at the question. This is the time to follow through on that promise.
While some Democrats want Biden to cancel up to $50,000 of loan forgiveness before payments resume on May 1, Republicans argue that it would hurt the economy and taxpayers. King said that the government can afford the relief.
Do you have a story about student debt? You can reach out to her at asheffey@insider.com.
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