Student loan debt is an epidemic, and it isn’t limited to any one political affiliation.
The debt crisis is so pervasive that many 2020 presidential candidates are staking their platforms on the issue, including Massachusetts Senator Elizabeth Warren, New York Senator Kirsten Gillibrand, and Vermont Senator Bernie Sanders.
Among the declared Democratic candidates, Warren has been particularly outspoken about the matter. Just last month, the senator called for the creation of a universal college system and policies to combat student loan debt. In her announcement, she revealed a comprehensive plan designed to cancel student loan debt for millions of Americans.
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Warren even devised a student debt cancelation calculator for those with loans to determine how they would personally be affected by her plan, which aims to assist people who attended 2 and 4-year college, graduate school, trade and technical schools, and job training and certification programs.
Warren’s proposal is incredibly detailed, accounting for different income brackets, racial and academic inequities, and future generations of college students. It’s on par with the rest of her meticulous and progressive proposals, as she continues to lead the pack of Democratic contenders with her deeply researched, well-developed policy positions. Based on Warren’s ultra-millionaire tax, her plan to cancel student loan debt would eliminate up to $50,000 in student loan debt for those with less than $100,000 in household income. It would also slash debt by one-third for those households making over $100,000 annually.
Student loan debt can be an anxiety-inducing predicament, to say the least. As of 2019, 44.7 million Americans collectively owe about $1.56 trillion in student loan debt in 2019, according to Forbes. Millennials, in particular, are one of the demographics most dramatically affected by this crisis. Most borrowers — about 16.8 million — are currently under 30 years old. That’s closely followed by the 30-39-year-old range, which constitutes about 12.3 million indebted Americans saddled with tens of thousands of dollars in debt for decades to come.
Though 2020 seems far off, student loan debt is already here. And so is our chance to demand and implement change in a clearly broken system.