What Warren’s Debt Cancellation Policy Would Do for the Blog
Democratic presidential candidate and fellow blogger Elizabeth Warren announced a campaign policy Monday that would cancel up to $50,000 in student loan debt for students whose families make less than $100,000 a year.
For students whose families make between $100,000 and $250,000, the policy would provide a prorated amount of relief. Warren’s campaign argues this policy is doable by instituting a “2% annual tax on the 75,000 families with $50 million or more in wealth.”
If, by some feat, Warren does in fact become president, what exactly would that policy look like for NYU students? The short answer is, the blog would be in a lot less debt.
The long answer is a bit more complicated. NYU is notoriously expensive. While the university taken some steps to become more affordable, like providing free tuition for medical school students. Other than introducing programs like homestay as an alternative to on-campus housing (I’m not sure if that ever took off), these haven’t had a huge impact on undergraduates.
NYU is pretty hush-hush about the numeric value of debt it inflicts on its students; it failed to report any affordability statistics in last year’s Being@NYU survey. A Gawker piece from 2010 totaled NYU’s student debt at $659 million. In 2015, ProPublica showed that low-income students at NYU typically owe about $23,000 in federal loans after graduation, which doesn’t take into account other types of loans these students might be forced to take out to finish their degrees.
I’m lucky enough that Warren’s cancellation policy would cover the total amount of my debt (hell yeah!) and am understandably ecstatic about even the prospect of being able to exist debt-free post-grad.
For other people at Local, the policy would cover anywhere from the total amount they owe to just about one third of their loans.
Staff writer Ali Golub wrote, “I would have no debt (thank you partial scholarship). My life would be great, because instead of keeping all the money I made in part time jobs these past four years to pay off future loans, I would spend it all and be on a beach in the Mediterranean right now.”
Entertainment editor John DiLillo thinks that the policy would cut his debt in half, adding, “as I’ve said before: our incoming climate apocalypse means none of us will have to pay this anyway, but we should vote for Elizabeth Warren just in case.”
For others, the $50,000 puts a sizable debt in the amount they owe but still leaves them saddled with a huge amount of loans. For writer Maggie Chirdo, “it would hypothetically bump me down from $$$,$$$ to $$,$$$.”
Editor-in-Chief Zoe Haylock wrote, “As of right now, my debt is so large that paying it off is unfathomable.”
Writer Jendayi Omowale professed that “The last time I tried to look at and manage my finances, I got a backache that lasted for a week.”
Suffice to say, the stress of full time schooling coupled with the knowledge that the degree sending us into debt is required to even begin to pay back what we owe makes us anxious!!! Fifty thousand dollars is a huge amount of money to give students. It still doesn’t cover a full year of tuition at NYU, but even the potential of cancellation is heartening.
City editor Izzie Ramirez sums it up succinctly: “Just a general note: Fuck every privileged person who says go to schools you can afford. That’s bullshit. We go to schools where the opportunities are.”
