The U.S. Department of Education has canceled more than $117 billion of the nearly $1.7 trillion of outstanding federal student loan debt since 2021. When President Biden recently wrote: “I believe that college should be a ticket to the middle class, not a burden that weighs people down with debt for decades to come,” U.S. Congressman Dan Crenshaw (R-Texas) replied on X (formerly Twitter): “Agreed.”
The former Navy SEAL and Harvard grad added: “But you don’t get there by ‘cancelling’ the debt of people who willingly took it on.” Crenshaw claims one way “you fix the crisis” is by “holding large taxpayer-funded institutions accountable for the tremendous tax burden of our current system.”
Agreed. But you don’t get there by “cancelling” the debt of people who willingly took it on. You fix the crisis by:
— Dan Crenshaw (@DanCrenshawTX) September 18, 2023
1. Cutting DEI waste and administrative bureaucracy. Higher education is spending more on bureaucracy than on teaching. At public 4-year schools in 2010, 32% of… https://t.co/XKW3RAtNJB
Crenshaw elaborates on his solutions, which include students being more practical about what they study and pursuing “economically sound degrees that are worth the return on investment.” Explaining what he means by holding taxpayer-funded institutions “accountable,” the Congressman lands on supply and demand, saying that since lending is so prevalent and easy, colleges raise prices to take advantage of the flood of money.
Crenshaw writes: “Between 1980 and 2020, the average price of tuition, fees, room, and board for an undergraduate degree increased by nearly 180%. Why? The more loans and grant aid a college student and their family get, the more they are willing to pay for tuition —allowing colleges to set higher rates of tuition.”
Crenshaw agreeing with Biden on any matter is a rarity, even if they only agree here that there’s a problem to be solved, not on how to solve it.
Note: After graduating from Tufts University in 2006 followed by a decade of military service, Crenshaw graduated from Harvard University’s John F. Kennedy School of Government with a MPA (Master of Pubic Administration) in 2017. Deployed to war zones five times, Crenshaw lost his right eye in an IED explosion in Afghanistan; he was awarded two Bronze Star Medals and a Purple Heart among other commendations.
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