I-Team 8 whiteboard: Agree with U.S. Supreme Court decision on student loans?
INDIANAPOLIS — In the wake of the U.S. Supreme Court’s decision to kill President Joe Biden’s plan to cancel $400 billion in federal student loan debt, I-Team 8 took to the streets with a whiteboard to find out what people think of the decision.
I-Team 8 asked a simple question: Do you agree with the Supreme Court decision to not allow student loan forgiveness?
Off the bat, some people answered but didn’t want to talk about their answer.
One person driving around Monument Circle stopped to answer the question but didn’t want to share his name. “I think there should be some relief, but I did not enjoy paying mine back, but I did in full.”
Ask if other people should do the same, the person who wouldn’t give his name said, “Maybe not anymore. Times were different back then.”
People who agreed with the Supreme Court decision explained why.
Ross Myers said “I paid for mine. Maybe it’s sour grapes on my part, but if you don’t have a vested interest if you don’t have a dog in the fight then it’s just a joke to go to school. What reason do you have to really work hard.”
Jeanne Myers said, “When you borrow money you should pay it back. You should plan on having the student loan and figure out a way as you move in to adulthood and working that you’re going to be able to pay it back.”
Jesse Severson said the decision by the Supreme Court is not a simple issue because of the continually rising costs of higher education. “It’s a really nuanced thing. Having a college degree is almost table stakes, and you kind of need one, and, to have that with the escalation of the prices, I think it’s a little not cool. I also think that just forgiving the loans though doesn’t solve the problem. It just kind of says, ‘All right, we’ll wipe some loans away without fixing the issue of the rising costs of education.’”
In the hour that I-Team 8 was at Monument Circle, quite a few people responded on the whiteboard.
The responses were split almost exactly down the middle.