“Student loan debt swelled under Biden, despite historic forgiveness,” CNBC

Some Factoids:

• Former President Joe Biden forgave more student debt than any other president.

• Still, the country’s outstanding federal education debt balance is higher today than when Biden entered the White House.

• The data shows how hard it is to make a meaningful dent in student debt with new student borrowing and current repayment rates.

Student loan debt grew during the Pandemic

Former President Joe Biden forgave more student debt than any other president. However, the country’s  education debt tab still grew during his presidency. Much of this is due to interest incurred during the pandemic

Outstanding federal student debt stood at roughly $1.64 trillion toward the end of 2024, according to U.S. Department of Education data analyzed by higher education expert Mark Kantrowitz. That compares with around $1.59 trillion at the start of 2021.

“Total student loan debt went up while President Biden was in office, despite all of the student loan forgiveness,” Kantrowitz said.

While Biden was in the White House, he canceled student debt for 5.3 million borrowers, for a total of $188.8 billion in relief.

While these numbers don’t account for inflation, they still show how difficult it is to make a meaningful debt in the country’s student loan balance, experts said.

There were roughly the same number of people with student debt (42 million) both when Biden entered and exited office, according to Kantrowitz’s calculations.

Root cause of the crisis is ‘the cost of higher education’

President of The Institute of Student Loan Advisors (a nonprofit helping borrowers navigate the repayment of their debt), Betsy Mayotte said it did not surprise her the country’s loan balance still climbed.

Adding . . . “We’re going to continue to see that until we solve the root cause of the student loan crisis,” And the root cause is the cost of higher education.”

Before financial aid, the sticker price at some four-year colleges and universities — after factoring in tuition, fees, room and board, books, and other expenses — is now nearing $100,000 per year.

For undergraduate students in the 2024-25 academic year, the estimated expenses for tuition, fees, housing and food at a public four-year in-state college is $24,920, and $58,600 at a private, nonprofit four-year college, according to the College Board.

“New borrowing outpaces repayment,” Kantrowitz said. Indeed, more than $300 billion in new federal loans were taken out while Biden was president, Kantrowitz calculated.

Another reason student debt didn’t drop under Biden was the Covid-era pause on federal student loan payments, which spanned from March 2020 to September 2023, Mayotte said.

“We went 3½ years where the vast majority of borrowers weren’t paying,” she said.

Keep in mind, Joe Biden was a stickler about student loans:

Early in his senatorial career, Biden played a role in making it easier for students and parents to take out burdensome loans, spanning across several decades. Later, his landmark bankruptcy reform legislation made it nearly impossible to discharge student loans, birthing a predatory industry and sinking millions into unsustainable levels of debt. “Joe Biden’s Role in Creating the Student Debt Crisis Stretches Back to the 1970s,” The Intercept.

Alan Collinge at Student Loan Justice has been battling the Gov and other interests for forgiveness of student loans. Many of which are predatory. StudentLoanJustice.Org, “Student Loan Justice.”