I am a librarian. This profession requires a graduate degree. So do the fields of social work, education, public interest law, and others. It is in the public interest that we have librarians, teachers, social workers, and public defenders and DAs, and these fields pay modest, but livable, salaries.
The salaries in these fields are livable, in part, because graduate student loans are currently eligible for the federal student loan income-driven repayment plan. Under this plan, people with graduate degrees who earn relatively modest incomes pay back their student loans based on their income, not based on the amortization of the loan.
Graduate student loans have been included in the income-driven repayment plan under Presidents G.W. Bush, Obama, and Trump. But Biden’s plan calls for excluding graduate student debt from the income-driven repayment plan.
This would drive many people making a living now into poverty. It will also greatly increase the default rate among people with graduate student loans, because people would simply be unable to pay. And Biden’s policy would discourage others from going into these fields.
I hope Biden reconsiders this ill-conceived plan, and revises it before the election.
MALIA EBEL
Sunapee