On March 21, Sen. Chuck Schumer hosted a call with several New York college students regarding his plan to cancel up to $50,000 in student debt per person. 

Schumer urged students to engage in a popular campaign in order to pressure the White House into taking action. Schumer placed the student loan crisis in two key contexts: racial inequality and economic stagnation. 

The national student loan debt stands at $1.7 trillion. However, the Senator emphasized that New York is hit harder than other areas. 2.4 million New Yorkers owe a collective debt of $89.5 billion in federal student loans and New York City residents, on average, owe $38,000. 

“College should be a ladder up, but student debt often weighs students down … its an anchor down,” said Schumer. “It wasn’t this way fifteen years ago. It has gotten much, much worse.” 

Student loan debt has increased by more than 100% over the course of the last decade. Student loan payments are currently on hold due to the COVID-19 pandemic, but when the band-aid comes off there will still be millions of current and former students stuck in the quicksand. 

“[The plan] involves President Biden’s executive powers,” Schumer said. “He and the secretary of education, Miguel Cardona, have broad administrative powers to just cancel student loan debt, and we’re trying to get the Biden administration to use it. It means we don’t have to go through Congress, we don’t have to worry about sixty votes. The President and the secretary of education can do this on their own … 93% of this debt is federal or federally backed.” 

Schumer and fellow lawmakers such as Massachusetts Sen. Elizabeth Warren believe that the most streamlined and logical path towards forgiveness is through the executive branch.

“I must give credit to my fellow Senator Elizabeth Warren,” Schumer said. “We are the leaders on this and we are pushing for it.” 

The senator said that the federal government can forgive all of its loans with a quick executive order. He believes the best way to achieve this is through popular action.

“What we’re trying to do is have a huge national movement that contacts President Biden,” said Schumer. “It can be by email. It can be my phone call. It can be by visit. Whatever. To take administrative action to cancel $50,000 in student debt for every student borrower.”

After extending his plea for popular pressure, Schumer explained how the student loan crisis is amplified by the larger context of racial inequality in the United States. Black and Latino borrowers have a harder time paying for college, so they take out more loans and then have a harder time paying them off, he said. Black borrowers have a 50/50 chance of defaulting on their student loans, and a third of Latino borrowers default on their loans, according to Schumer. Further, Schumer pointed out that Black borrowers, typically, owe more than the worth of their original loans in the first place. 

“The Biden-Harris administration can right this wrong,” he said. “They can close the Black-white wealth gap by 25 percentage points, and close the Latinx-white wealth gap by 27 percentage points, giving Black and brown families across the country a far better shot at building financial security.”  

Schumer also discussed the loan crisis in the context of economic stagnation. He said he believes debt restricts the ability of college graduates to take the basic life steps open to past generations. 

Schumer argued the White House could right racial injustice and help out suffering debtors and give a massive boost to the economy. With the looming shadow of debt cleared, graduates and current students would be able to put their money back into the economy.

“Instead of paying $400 a month to the federal government, younger people and middle-aged people who still have debt will use that money to go out to restaurants, to go on vacation, to build another room, to buy a car or a house or appliance,” he said. 

Before opening up for questions, Schumer reiterated his call for popular action: “I am urging every leader of every student newspaper to not only write and call and email President Biden but to get their friends and family to as well.” 

Schumer and his allies plan to exert legislative pressure on the current administration while avoiding Republican roadblocks.

“We don’t want to make it a law because then the Republicans can block it, but we have a resolution urging Biden to do this, and it has a large number of senators on it,” Schumer said.  “We are looking at ways we can reduce the cost of college, before students entail this huge amount of debt. The immediate problem is alleviating current debt. But, we are looking at ways to reduce the cost of college in a variety of different ways.”

Education Secretary Miguel Cardona announced on March 18 that 72,000 students will receive loan forgiveness, having already been approved by the Borrower Defense to Repayment program. The White House’s move still leaves the vast majority of borrowers in the dark and only chips $1 billion off of the national student loan debt of $1.7 trillion.