On Student Debt, Bernie Tells Biden: "Do More!"

According to Federal Reserve data, borrowers held a collective roughly $1.75 trillion in student debt. Bernie tells Biden, “do better!”

By Sharon Zhang, Truthout

After the Biden administration canceled $415 million of student debt for victims of for-profit colleges, Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-Vermont) called for all student debt to be canceled, a move that could relieve tens of millions of borrowers of what is often a huge financial burden.

On Wednesday, the Education Department announced that it was canceling debt for students who were misled by for-profit colleges like DeVry University. The agency has been fielding complaints from borrowers and has found that the institution made “widespread substantial misrepresentations about its job placement rates.”

Bernie Sanders to Biden: Get rid of student debt!

Advocates and lawmakers lauded the decision, but pointed out that there is still more to be done if the administration is to substantially address the student loan crisis.

“Good,” Sanders wrote on Twitter. “Now cancel the remaining $1,883,214,046,704 for 44,984,000 other Americans who are still drowning in student debt.”

A mass nixing of student loans for victims of for-profit colleges has been years in the making; during the Trump administration, judges ordered the Education Department to cancel student loans for for-profit college victims, but former Education Secretary Betsy DeVos refused to do so.