WASHINGTON (AP) — At a campaign rally in April, President Joe Biden told a crowd in Wisconsin about his latest “life-changing” student loan cancellation plan, promising financial relief to more than 30 million Americans.
But Kamala Harris has steered clear of the topic at her political events since replacing Biden as the Democratic nominee for president. The vice president’s platform mentions it only twice and without a concrete plan. As she courts moderate voters, Harris is focusing on policies aimed at Americans without college degrees.
“For far too long, our country has promoted only one path to success: a four-year college degree,” Harris said in September in Wilkes-Barre, Pennsylvania. “Our nation must recognize the value of other paths.”
In just a few years, student loan cancellation has gone from being a pillar of the Democratic Party to becoming a political liability. The issue used to be seen as a surefire way to motivate juvenile voters. Now the issue has become a cudgel of Republicans, who say it gives an advantage to elites at the expense of those who have paid off their loans or didn’t attend college.
The issue came up only once in the presidential debate in September, when Republican Donald Trump criticized Harris and Biden for failing to follow through on their promise of a comprehensive cancellation. The former president called it a “total disaster” that “mocked young people.”
“They haven’t even come close to getting student loans,” Trump said.
Biden’s efforts for student loan forgiveness have faced unrelenting obstacles
Biden, who once questioned the legality of mass student loan forgiveness, championed the issue after progressives like Sen. Bernie Sanders, I-Vt., made it a mainstream idea. But as president, Biden faced relentless challenges from Republican opponents. For the roughly 42 million people with federal student loans, hope for forgiveness has turned to resignation and disillusionment.
Biden’s first plan to cut up to $20,000 for millions of people was blocked by the Supreme Court last year. A second, narrower plan was halted by a federal judge after Republican-led states sued. A separate policy aimed at lowering loan payments for struggling borrowers was stayed by a judge even after Republican-controlled states objected to it.
On Friday, the Biden administration launched another attempt to cancel student loans. This focused on Americans facing severe financial burdens beyond their student loans. It faces an uncertain future and comes less than two weeks before the November 5 election.
The legal uncertainty likely contributed to Harris deemphasizing the nullification, said Michelle Dimino, education program director at the centrist think tank Third Way. It’s also an issue her base is familiar with, she added.
“She can’t offer much new until we know what’s going to happen in court,” Dimino said. When Biden first proposed a comprehensive cancellation, it had not yet been attempted. “Now it’s a completely different landscape than it was in 2020, when it was a clean slate.”
Harris’ silence also signals the political risks, particularly in close elections. Any fresh promise of loan cancellation would give fresh impetus to Republicans, who have made it a rallying cry. For voters who could benefit from a rejection, it’s a promise they’ve heard before.
“The Harris campaign recognizes that this is not necessarily a winning political issue,” said Preston Cooper, a senior fellow at the American Enterprise Institute.
“The student loan agenda is in shambles and hasn’t really helped them win votes,” Cooper said.
Even moderate Americans seem skeptical about student loan forgiveness. A June poll by the University of Chicago Harris School of Public Policy and the Associated Press-NORC Center for Public Affairs Research found that three in 10 U.S. adults said they approved of Biden’s work on student debt, and they were not much better at paying back loans. Just over half of Democrats said they supported the president’s job, while 18% of independents said the same.
Both Harris and Trump promote alternatives to college
The Harris campaign declined to provide details about her termination plan or answer questions.
Their platform doesn’t mention student loans until after a full page of guidelines for workers without a degree. At the September rally in Pennsylvania, Harris drew applause when she said she would eliminate unnecessary graduation requirements for federal jobs. She didn’t mention student loans in her 20-minute speech.
“Requiring a certain degree doesn’t necessarily say anything about one’s abilities,” Harris told the audience at Wilkes University, a private college in northeastern Pennsylvania.
Harris’ comments reflect a customary Republican talking point that is increasingly being taken up by Democrats as more Americans question the value of a college degree.
“Student loan forgiveness may alienate some of the support Harris hopes to garner from non-college graduates,” said Andrew Gillen, a research fellow at the libertarian Cato Institute’s Center for Educational Freedom. “Such polarizing issues poison the well for other things that are supported by both parties. Once issues like student loan forgiveness are resolved, I think there will be a lot more of this bipartisan agreement to come.”
It is one of the few areas where Harris and Trump have common ground.
In his platform, the former Republican president said he would “support the creation of additional, significantly more affordable alternatives to a traditional four-year college degree.” Loans are not mentioned. Trump has spoken out against the cancellation, saying it was illegal.
“President Trump will implement real solutions to make education, housing and living costs affordable for young people so they can live the American dream,” Karoline Leavitt, national press secretary for Trump’s 2024 presidential campaign, told the AP.
Student loan advocates point to Trump’s vague promises, failure to regulate public service loan forgiveness and appointment of judges who have blocked comprehensive student debt relief. “Trump is proud of his work to the detriment of working families,” said Melissa Byrne, a political organizer who pushed for the cancellation.
The fate of further student loan cancellations is unclear
As attorney general in California, Harris led efforts to punish for-profit colleges for defrauding borrowers. As a presidential candidate in 2019, Harris proposed a narrower path to loan forgiveness than those proposed by Sanders and Sen. Elizabeth Warren, D-Mass. Harris’ plan would have provided $20,000 in relief to every federal Pell Grant recipient who started a business in a disadvantaged community and kept it running for three years.
After the Biden administration announced this month that it had eliminated loans for more than a million public workers, Harris released a statement praising the work and again pledging broadly to “continue to make higher education more affordable.” .
Aissa Canchola Bañez, policy director at Protect Borrowers Action, said Harris’ track record on student debt relief suggests she will follow through on promises made under Biden.
“This is an issue she has been working on since long before she arrived in Washington, D.C.,” Canchola Bañez said, citing the unprecedented amount of student loan debt forgiven under the Biden administration. “We saw the vice president very vigorously applauding the relief so far.”
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