Student debt erasure becomes prevalent topic in presidential debates
With a presidential election right around the corner, student debt has been a frequent topic brought up in the democratic debates — this is due to the United States currently having 1.5 trillion dollars of student loan debt and it is not only affecting many American families but also the economy.
Two presidential candidates who emphasize this issue are Elizabeth Warren and Bernie Sanders.
Warren’s plan to cancel student debt is to cancel $50,000 for every household with an annual income less than $100,000 and the amount would phase out by $1 for every $3 for households with an annual income above $100,000.
Sanders’ plan to cancel student debt is to totally erase the $1.5 trillion by introducing a tax on financial transactions which he expects to raise $2 trillion in the next decade. Sanders also plans to make every four-year institution completely free.
According to Game of Loans, a book about student loan debt written by Beth Akers, student loan debt passed credit card debt in 2010. By 2013, student debt passed the 1 trillion-dollar mark and has been steadily increasing since.
A study from Investopedia, a source of financial content on the web, says 43 percent of people who went to college took on debt for their education and today, 54 percent of college students had to take on some form of debt.
Student debt does not only affect the individual who takes on student loans, it effects an entire family. Most of the time a college student cannot take on all the loans alone considering the average amount of student loan debt per borrower is $35,359 according to Investopedia.
“My mom had to take out a loan my first semester of college because I was only 17 when we filed for a loan,” said Kyndal Wallace, a sophomore at Texas A&M University, “she struggled for a while because she had to pay it every month.”
Some students feel they must finish college due to the debt that they build up from loans, even if finishing college isn’t something they want to do. A user on twitter named @Kileyjo tweeted about dealing with this issue.

Taking out student loans can be beneficial to a college student because it can allow them to get a college education without worrying about the hefty dues of college tuition. Nevada Money Mentors, a program at University of Nevada, Reno that helps students with their financial issues for free, deal with students struggling with Student loan debt.
“Sometimes loans are necessary but they’re a great investment in a student’s future,” said Dalia Vongpanya, a peer mentor with Nevada Money Mentors, “but sometimes students are pretty debt averse and don’t like the idea of building up student loan debt and aggressively work to pay them off as soon as possible.”
Nevada Money Mentors encourages students to take out just enough to be comfortable throughout college, but sometimes students must take on more than they can handle to be able to go to college at all.
“Working with seniors and people who might be going to graduate school, that is when they start thinking about what they’re going to do about their debt,” said Devin Cooley, who is also a peer mentor with Nevada Money Mentors. “They don’t know much about student loans when they take some out freshman year and that is when it becomes kind of a wheel and once you’re already in it, it is hard to get out of it.”
It is when students get caught in this wheel of debt when student loan debt affects the economy. In an article written by Josh Freedman called Student Loans are a Drag on the Economy and Society, Freedman states that data from the New York Fed suggested that individuals with student loan debt are less likely to purchase homes and cars.
When adults are not able to buy homes or cars due to their piling student loan debt, the economy is affected, and this is when people notice. Now student debt erasure is a topic frequently brought up in the democratic debates.
In a study done by the Harvard Kennedy School Institute of Politics, 57 percent of people believe student loan debt to be a major issue. There is a little divide between political parties regarding the severity of this issue with 62 percent of Democrats and 57 percent of Republicans believing it to be a major issue

This could be the reason student debt is frequently being brought up in presidential debates, when both parties have a similar opinion on the severity of an issue presidential candidates have to propose a solution.
