• UnderpantsWeevil@lemmy.world
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    1 month ago

    I’ll keep investing in K-12 education

    The bulk of elementary education funding comes from the states. So this doesn’t mean much in practice.

    One place where a federal official (like the President) would be able to help out immensely is by immediately cancelling some (or, fuck it, all) of the outstanding federally held student loan debt. This could be accomplished via the Higher Education Relief Opportunities for Students (HEROES) Act of 2003, which authorizes the secretary of the DOE to “waive or modify any statutory or regulatory provision applicable to” the Title IV loan programs “as the Secretary deems necessary” to ensure that individuals adversely affected by a Presidentially declared national emergency “are not placed in a worse position financially.”

    A number of Presidential contenders promised just this back in 2020 (Warren, Sanders, even Biden himself). Sadly, Harris hedged on this pledge even back then and has not made any attempt to renew it now.

    • AA5B@lemmy.world
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      1 month ago

      The bulk of student loans is held by private entities

      This response seems like it’s missing the last few years: you’re aware that Biden’s administration has gone through multiple attempts of exactly this, right? Mostly struck down by courts as exceeding his authority.