Florida Governor Ron DeSantis, a 2024 Republican presidential candidate, said Tuesday he has a better idea than President Joe Biden's plan to alleviate student debt.
"We've had a generation of kids go to college and end up deep into debt with little to show for it," DeSantis said in a tweet. "The left's solution is to force taxpayers to pay off this debt. Here's a better solution: Make the colleges and universities foot the bill. And let student loans be dischargeable in bankruptcy."
DeSantis' solution is part of the plan he calls the Declaration of Economic Independence that includes 10 pillars that seek to strengthen the economy and help those in the middle class.
Earlier this year, the U.S. Supreme Court struck down Biden's plan to cancel student loan debt for thousands of borrowers. The plan's goal was to cancel up to $10,000 in debt for students with an income of $125,000 or less and up to $20,000 for recipients of Pell Grants.
On Monday, DeSantis spoke further about his economic plans, including a plan to alleviate student loan debt through bankruptcy.
"It's wrong to say that a truck driver should have to pay off the debt of somebody who got a degree in gender studies," DeSantis said, adding that student loans should be dischargeable in bankruptcy. "This is not the taxpayers that should have to do that.
"At the same time, I have sympathy for some of these students because I think they were sold a bill of goods. I think these universities knew that they could take all this federal loan money. And if you're there for six years, hey that's more money for them, right? And they do it, and they increase their administrative bloat and they didn't make the instruction any better."
According to the U.S. Department of Education, students currently have the ability to discharge their loans through bankruptcy, but it requires several steps, including demonstrating to a bankruptcy court that "repaying your loan would cause undue hardship."
After the Supreme Court struck down Biden's plan, he announced other efforts to lessen student debt, including an array of income-driven repayment (IDR) plans. The plans use a student's income and family size to lower the overall cost of their student loan debt.
The four plans include the Revised Pay As You Earn Repayment Plan (REPAYE Plan), the Pay As You Earn Repayment Plan (PAYE Plan), the Income-Based Repayment Plan (IBR Plan) and the Income-Contingent Repayment Plan (ICR Plan).
Newsweek reached out to DeSantis' campaign via email for comment.
Uncommon Knowledge
Newsweek is committed to challenging conventional wisdom and finding connections in the search for common ground.
Newsweek is committed to challenging conventional wisdom and finding connections in the search for common ground.
About the writer
Matthew Impelli is a Newsweek staff writer based in New York. His focus is reporting social issues and crime. In ... Read more
