Washington Post editorial board calls Biden student loan bailout 'regressive, expensive mistake'

The Washington Post editorial board is criticizing President Biden's student-loan bailout plan, calling it "ill-conceived and misdirected." 

Biden has typically "embraced sensible reforms over flashy gimmicks" but his loan bailout measure "did just the opposite," the board wrote shortly after the president's announcement Wednesday.

Biden plan forgives as much as $20,000 in student loans for Pell Grant recipients, and up to $10,000 for those who did not receive Pell Grants so long as they make less than $125,000 a year or under $250,000 if they are part of a household.

Biden is also extending the pause on student loan payments until the end of the year, a measure originally implemented by then-President Donald Trump at the start of the COVID-19 pandemic.

The board said the delay in loan repayments is "hard" to justify when the unemployment rate for people with bachelor's degrees or higher is just 2% and that the "loan-forgiveness decision is even worse."

Member wrote the administration's measure to cancel student debt is "regressive," and argued it "takes money from the broader tax base, mostly made up of workers who did not go to college, to subsidize the education debt of people with valuable degrees."

The plan is most likely to benefit white-color professionals with high future salaries, the paper stated before citing a study finding that students from both poor and wealthy families are equally as likely to take on debt for their first year of undergrad, but high-income families borrow more.