Borrowed loan piece thumbs nose at reality

Sunday’s Editorial Page included an “Others Say” lifted from the Las Vegas Review-Journal that was so biased and partisan as to be unfit for print in the often conservative but usually respectable Northwest Arkansas Democrat-Gazette.

The borrowed screed paints the Biden administration’s efforts to secure student loan relief as a “pandering” attempt to “buy votes” instead of the long-awaited delivery on a campaign promise made to the voters who elected him. Delivering on promises is, after all, why politicians campaign and why we voters elect them. Isn’t it?

The basis for the Review-Journal’s argument against student loan forgiveness is just as spurious. If we could swap out the partisan pontificating with honest analysis of the authors’ priors, we Dem-Gaz readers might get a more honest policy conversation based in actual economics or (gasp!) empathy.

They said loan forgiveness would “saddle American taxpayers.” However, they fail to recognize that borrowers are taxpayers, too, and kneecapping their economic potential can hinder the broader economy that affects us all.

They said “thousands of students willingly incurred loan debt,” but they ignored that societal norms, public school messaging, and job market demands often make it a coercively bounded choice, often leaving students to believe higher education is the only viable path to success.

They said “loan forgiveness is a slap in the face to college graduates who met their financial obligations,” without acknowledging that 40% of borrowers aren’t even “graduates” with the presumed earning potential that comes with that status.

They go on to speak of “those who lived within their means to cash-flow higher education,” overlooking how the costs of higher education have skyrocketed while wages have stagnated. A college student in the 2020s would have to work 6 times as many hours as a student in the 1970s to pay for school — let’s not even talk about paying for housing these days — and that’s hardly conducive to success in school.

I am a graduate who paid off my student loans (about $65k between undergrad and grad loans) in 10 years, right on schedule. I was lucky to work in the highest paid public school districts in Arkansas — a very different experience from teachers in other parts of the state. I’m doing OK and not feeling slapped.

We all benefit from money flowing freely around the economy. Locking up capital and crippling the earning potential of future generations with interest just so they can suffer through the same struggles that we did sounds more like hazing than sound economic policy. And it’s self-defeating.

When the Dem-Gaz borrows someone else’s editorial without comment, it looks like an endorsement. Next time, maybe you could pay some interest on the loan with some of your own context before you bankrupt the entire conversation.

KYLE SMITH

Fayetteville