Student loan repayments have been discontinued since March 2020 and are not scheduled to resume until September, which means students have been exempted from paying for 30 months as an epidemic relief measure. And the pause to avoid resuming payments a few months before President Biden’s election is widely expected to increase, just as former President Trump did before the 2020 election.
We don’t know how much the alumni benefited from the break up for many years down the road, because only at a previous glance can we determine if they have repaid their debts in full. If they finally repay in full, the break amount will be an interest-free loan for 30 months (the break interest is also waived). But many students will not pay the full amount. Even before the break, 72 percent of graduate plus loans were expected to be forgiven, as borrowers enrolled in an income-driven repayment plan or public service loan forgivability can forgive any remaining balance after paying for a period of 10 to 25 years. Payment breaks under these plans are calculated as 30 months payment. In other words, for many students, payments were not suspended: they were completely forgiven.
My analysis of program-level data from the college scorecard of the U.S. Department of Education offers a striking snapshot of who is benefiting the most from student loan repayments. Using the most recent group of graduates in the data (those who graduated in 2017-18 and 2018-19), graduates who earned an associate’s degree are saving a total of $ 4,020 per month over the pay break during March 2020 to September 2022. Months. Those who graduate are saving $ 225 (মোট 6,750 in total) per month. Even this significant amount is dwarfed by how much advanced degree holders are getting. Those who have a master’s degree are saving 455 (মোট 13,650 in total) per month. Those with a doctorate degree save $ 861 (মোট 25,830 in total) per month, and those with a professional degree, such as medical doctors, dentists and lawyers, save $ 1,784 ($ 53,520 in total) per month.
Earnings data is not yet available for these students But the use of inflation-adjusted incomes by three-year postgraduate peers as a proxy for these students ’expected future earnings reveals that the payout break is surprisingly reversible.
For example, recent graduates are receiving 13 times more benefits than associate degree holders with a professional degree (median salary $ 78,226) (median salary $ 34,123).
But how beneficial a break in student loan repayments is for the rich can be seen by examining the special degree that really benefits the most. Those with a doctorate in pharmacy have an average income of $ 129,776. Yet payment breaks are saving them $ 3,296 ($ 98,880 in total) per month. Those with a professional degree in dentistry earn an average of 13 137,404 and save $ 2,827 per month (total $ 84,810).
In contrast, those with a bachelor’s degree in education saved an average income of $ 38,448 and only $ 264 (total $ 7,920) per month. In other words, pharmacists and dentists earn about three times what a new teacher earns, yet they benefit more than 10 times from a loan repayment break.
New lawyers have an average income of 78,547 and savings of $ 1,361 per month (total $ 40,830). In contrast, those with an associate’s degree in legal support services have an average income of $ 31,309 but save only $ 208 (মোট 6,240) per month. In other words, new lawyers earn more than twice what many paralegals earn but benefit six times more from student loan repayments.
The list of colleges with at least 1,500 borrowers whose graduates are benefiting the most also reveals that student loan repayments are distorted already or soon aimed at providing welfare for the rich. Top 25 colleges per student facility include Tufts University (24 1,246 per month, total $ 37,380), Georgetown University ($ 989 per month, total $ 29,670), Columbia University ($ 934 per month, total $ 28,020), Harvard University (per month). $ 851, total $ 25,530), Wake Forest University ($ 769 per month, total $ 23,070), and Vanderbilt University ($ 761 per month, total $ 22,830). Medium graduates from Georgetown and Harvard earn more than $ 100,000, so it’s hard to believe that these same students are among the biggest beneficiaries of the loan break.
Welfare for the rich is a wrong allocation of taxpayer dollars, so ending the student loan repayment break for the Biden administration is now a thing of the past.
