You load 16 tons, what
do you get?
Another day older and deeper in debt
St. Peter, don't you call me 'cause I can't go
I owe my soul to the company store
Evangelicals and
Republicans oppose student debt relief?
First, I’ve got no dog in this hunt. When I graduated from
college in 1973, I had a grand total of $1,600 in student loans which were
repaid long ago. My sons have grown and any debt that they incurred, or I incurred
for them, has long been repaid. Thus I will not personally benefit from any
student loan cancelation. But that does not mean that I do not support student
loan relief.
Education is a common resource. Producers need an educated
labor force, but they do not directly pay for this educated labor force. Producers may pay more for employees
with a degree, but they do not care if that employee received a free education or
how much that education cost the employee. Producers count on society to provide
and regulate common resources such as education. So societal spending on education
benefits both the producers and their employees.
Loans are a way that costs are repaid in the future. If we
agree that there should be an income and asset test applied before public money
is spent, you can be assured that both the student who paid with their own
assets, and the student who paid with loans, already had this asset/income test.
( Like many parents, I spent hours filling out FAFSA forms. I can personally attest that means tests were employed). If public money is used to repay student loans,
then this is just time shifting public spending on education with an income
test. In fact since individuals made their own choices on colleges, etc., this
is virtually identical to a voucher program. Each student made their own choice on how that spending on education was used.
(In fact since Boston College is a religious school, some of those loans were
used to pay religious schools, I can also personally assure you)
Therefore if you support a voucher program as encouraging
choice, and a means test to ensure that public money is only spent where and
when it is needed, then supporting the cancelation of student debt is consistent
with those positions.
The only reason for not supporting student debt relief is
if you believe that government spending on an educated work force is wrong. I hope that it isn't because the “wrong” kind of people incurred that debt and they are benefiting
from the cancellation.
I would also think that evangelicals would want to encourage
calls by St. Peter, not prevent them because those who are called owe too much. Debt cancellation
is also very Biblical (e.g. Leviticus 25-26, Deuteronomy 15, Exodus 21:2, Luke 7:36-50). The Lord’s Prayer is “Forgive
us our debts, as we forgive our debtors.”
There is a question of how canceling student loans can distort the decisions of those incurring new student debt, or how those who charge for education might raise prices today if they know that the debt will eventually be forgiven, but those are different questions.
