The debate over student loan debt cancellation is back, as President Biden continues to string out the issue by saying he is “still considering it”. That is leading to the usual vigorous debate on Sunday talk shows, social media, and on-line articles. Everyone seems to have strong feelings about this–with those still making their payments thinking they deserve it for having voted Democrat in the last couple of elections–and everyone who never took out loans or who those that have paid off our loans saying “suck it up, Buttercup.”
But one group that has remained strangely silent in this entire debate are the leaders of higher education in America. I could only find one article in an on-line search involving anyone from the UW System ever addressing the topic publicly. Former UW-Madison Chancellor Becky Blank and UW-Milwaukee Chancellor Mark Mone were asked about it at a Milwaukee Press Club luncheon back in April of last year–by a reporter with WisPolitics.com. Blank pointed out that a majority of UW-Madison grads leave school with no student loan debt–while Mone only addressed the issue from the angle of replacing potential lost revenue from student loan providers. Not exactly strong endorsements of the idea.
Searches for articles on Ivy League presidents or leaders of the University of California System throwing their support behind student loan debt cancellation come up empty as well. Where are the chancellors and presidents meeting with students on the Quad to “hear and be educated” on this issue like they did with Black Lives Matter, or gun violence, or trans rights, or the “violence” perpetrated by conservative speakers on campus? Why are the windows on the ivory towers so sound-proof this time around?
Of course, to publicly advocate for student loan cancellation would, in effect, be an admission that the some degrees issued by schools are not worth what they are charging to get them. The most common complaint from those demanding their loans be canceled is that the salary they are making in the field related to their degree will never be enough to pay off the loan–well and afford to take a couple of vacations with friends every year, have ten subscription streaming services, maintain the highest customer level in Amazon Prime, pay for doggie day care, live in a prohibitively expensive major city, buy 2 lattes a day, order every meal from restaurants, and continue to own all of the latest technological toys–while still living with your parents. And those are the ones lucky enough to find jobs in the fields related to their degrees. Think of the poor ballet majors now working for Amazon because it turns out that there isn’t a lot of demands for ballerinas right now.
And serious discussion of student loan debt cancellation should also include probing why college education has outpaced the rate of inflation in cost increases for decades. Less state and federal government funding is one cause, but so is the explosion in campus administration. Under the organizational chart for Academic Affairs at UW-Oshkosh, you have separate departments for Faculty and Academic Staff Affairs, Curricular Affairs and Student Academic Achievement, Academic Support of Inclusive Excellence, Center for Excellence in Teaching and Learning, and the Office of Student Research and Creative Activity. All of those departments have five, six, or even seven “Directors” or “Coordinators”–who no doubt have a full staff under them as well. And that is just one of six departments listed under Administration at UWO. It doesn’t cost that much more to teach kids nowadays–it just cost a lot more to “administer” the education.
And I want those college leaders involved in this discussion because they are the ones that can speak with authority to how it is students themselves that are driving many of these higher costs. Let’s point to how many high school grads are coming to campus in need of remedial math and English language arts learning–which requires schools to have more “lower level” teaching staff and requires more time on campus to get a degree. Let’s talk in the open about how much it costs to staff “multi-cultural centers” or to hire counselors for student groups “representing” each individual color on the Pride flag. Let’s put up the numbers on how much of those student loans go to operating dorms that look more like upscale apartment units just so no one has to share a bedroom with a snoring classmate or a bathroom with 59 other people on the floor. List the cost of running food service that “has to” provide free range eggs and fair trade coffee–not to mention gluten-free, nut-free, kosher, keto-friendly, vegan, Halal, low-carb, vegetarian, and culturally-appropriate meals all day long. And all of the uneaten food that is required to be composted or sent off to the multi-million dollar bio-digester to produce enough energy to power one building on campus.
I may consider getting on board the student loan debt cancellation bandwagon if those responsible for taking out the debt and all of those responsible for the costs associated with the debt admit that cheap and easily-available money coming from student loan programs caused them all to throw fiscal responsibility out the window and that they will all learn from this experience and will be far more fiscally-responsible from now on. Who am I kidding? If the debt is cancelled the next generation will demand free college for everyone–and you and I will end up paying for all of that too.
