How Biden’s government plans impact Ohio State: Canceling student debt, changing Title IX regulations

Paige Cirtwill
Wed, 03 Mar 2021 01:12:03 +0000
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Before his inauguration, Biden vowed to cancel $10,000 in federal student loan debt and repeal Trump-era Title IX regulations. Credit: Ashley Landis/The Dallas Morning News via TNS

President Joe Biden’s big promises could mean changes for college students if his administration follows through.

Before his inauguration, Biden vowed to cancel $10,000 in federal student loan debt and repeal Trump-era Title IX regulations. The proposed debt cancellation could strongly benefit Ohio State students and graduates, given the average Buckeye who graduates with student debt has incurred $27,000 in loans, University President Kristina M. Johnson said in her State of the University Address Feb. 18.

However, the proposed cancellation would only apply to federal student loans and not private loans, which are made by a bank or other lending institution, Mark Seymour, chief lending officer for Gahanna, Ohio-based organization KEMBA Financial Credit Union, said.

“Some people do have federal student loans as well as private student loans, so if we get a portion of that forgiven, it’s certainly going to ease the burden,” Seymour said.

Biden said during a Feb. 16 CNN town hall that he still supports canceling $10,000 of student debt but does not support raising that number to $50,000, as some progressives such as U.S. Sens. Elizabeth Warren and Bernie Sanders advocate.??

Part of Biden’s reasoning for not supporting a $50,000 cancellation was that he didn’t want a lot of money going to “people who have gone to Harvard and Yale and Penn,” referring to Ivy League schools whose names give students advantage over competitors for higher-paying jobs.

However, less than half a percent of federal student loan borrowers attended an Ivy League school, according to estimates by higher education expert Mark Kantrowitz.

The canceled debt would have to become a part of the federal deficit, meaning taxpayers would pay it off in the future, Lucia Dunn, a research professor of economics at Ohio State who specializes in the labor market and consumer debt, said. She also said that some have questioned how fair it is to cancel debt for some while others have already paid off loans or didn’t go to college.

Still, student debt cancellation would benefit many young people, Dunn and Seymour said.

“They’re consumers, too,” Dunn said. “They can’t buy houses, they can’t buy cars, all kinds of industries suffer with that, so it’s a good thing.”

Although the Biden administration has not yet taken steps toward forgiving student loan debt, it extended the pause on federal student loan payments and interest until Oct. 1, so students will not be required to make payments on federal loans, nor will they accrue interest.

Biden also promised to roll back Title IX regulations implemented by former President Donald Trump’s administration, such as a narrower definition of sexual harassment and limiting schools’ responsibility to investigate sexual misconduct claims that took place off campus.

“Under the Obama plan, it was more favored towards people who were accusing,” Joshua Hawley, director of the Ohio Education Research Center and professor in the John Glenn College of Public Affairs, said. “Under the Trump plan, they were more favoring towards the people who were being accused of offenses.”

Hawley said the Biden administration Title IX plan will likely resemble that of former President Barack Obama.

No steps have been taken toward repealing Trump’s Title IX regulations yet, but it will likely take time because the regulations went through the official “rule-making” process in the Department of Education.