Biden student debt relief plan deserves to be struck down

As a proud Democrat, It pains me to say this, but I hope the U.S. Supreme Court rules to override President Joe Biden’s student loan debt relief plan (“Legal fight over student debt a prelude to political battle,” March

2). Besides being an overreach of executive power, it’s also just bad policy.

While it seems the administration made an attempt to target this relief to those who need it most, this must be viewed in relative terms. A family making almost $250,000 per year does not seem to me to be the best place to spend taxpayer dollars considering the multitude of other places this money could be better spent. Within the education arena alone, I can think of multiple other opportunities to have a greater impact on people who need the help more.

Universal pre-K, new and updated public schools, more money for the arts and music in our elementary and secondary schools, and college scholarships for underrepresented groups are all ideas that come to mind. Our resources are limited, and choices must be made concerning where best to allocate them. Forgiving student debt is the wrong choice.

Forgiving debt taken on by choice, whether it is for education, a home, a car or anything else, will strike many in the “fairness” camp as a decidedly distasteful idea and for good reason. This plan will make the current situation worse by incentivizing people to take out loans that they may not be able to pay off for degrees and programs they may not finish or that won’t provide the education and skills they were promised. It will also exacerbate the problem of rising college costs in the same way that easy federal loans played a role in the past.

Lastly, it will push moderates out of a party that desperately needs them. This is bad precedent, bad policy and bad politics.

— Mike Jacobson, Baltimore