The topic of whether college debt/student loans should be forgiven or not is often brought up in political debates, especially when speaking about what new changes need to occur. College debt is a financial stressor that affects about 46 million Americans. Since president Biden has been in office, he’s cancelled 9.5 billion in student loans, but it still isn’t enough. (Lorna Collier, 2021) College debt is a barrier that keeps people from achieving life milestones, like buying a house or even starting a business. It also keeps people from investing into things that could potentially bring them more income, instead they are forced to live paycheck to paycheck because they have to put money aside to pay off their debts. College/student debt should be forgiven and cancelled out.
If you take out student loans it affects your debt-to-income ratio. If you need to take out any other kind of loan in the future and already have a high student loan debt then it can be difficult to take out more loans, this means that you potentially could not be able to take out a loan to buy the house that you want or start the business that you’ve always dreamed of. Purchasing a home and starting a business are only two of the life milestones that student debt keeps you from achieving. Student loans should not also come with the price of keeping people from achieving things and therefore college/student debt should be forgiven and cancelled.
Student loans show up on credit reports since they are a kind of installment loan, late payments can affect your credit score in a negative way. According to the article “Here’s how student loans show up on your credit report and impact your credit score” by Elizabeth Gravier “Even though your student loans show up on your credit report, however, your actual loan balance doesn’t matter as much as your payments on that loan do. Lenders want to see that borrowers make on-time payments on their loans as long as they are in active repayment. If you end up falling behind on payments or defaulting on your student loan, that’s where the loan’s appearance on your credit report can be damaging.”
This potentially means that if you were to fall behind in your payments then your credit score could be damaged, in reality some borrowers can’t promise that every payment will be given on time since there are financial emergencies that could occur. Emergencies like losing one’s job or receiving a hospital bill can consume the funds that are supposed to go towards the student loan payment, and it isn’t fair that one’s credit score has to pay the consequences for unforeseen emergencies, this is yet another reason why college/student debt should be forgiven and cancelled.
Others may dispute that cancelling and forgiving college/student debt would violate the morality of the lenders/programs policies and the promise that one basically makes before taking out a loan, but this violation is no comparison to the strain that college/student debt puts on one’s mental health. According to the article “Student loan debt hurts the mental health of most borrowers, Survey finds” By Carmen Reinicke, “When people aren’t able to pay their bills or their student loans as quickly as they should, there is a level of shame and sometimes guilt,” said Aja Evans, a licensed mental health counselor who works with Laurel Road, a digital banking platform.” This proves how student loan debts can affects one’s mental health/well-being negatively. The state of our mental health affects our day to day lives and student debt could possibly become a factor that puts it at risk and this risk entails why college/student debt should be forgiven and cancelled.
My idea for the final product is to add more resources and evidence, one more claim or two, organize my essay better, and also word it a little better. I also need to include the outline for the final product.
Collier, Lorna. “Student Loans.” CQ Researcher, 23 Sept. 2021, library.cqpress.com/cqresearcher/cqr_ht_college_debt_2021.
Gravier, Elizabeth. “Here’s How Student Loans Show up on Your Credit Report and Impact Your Credit Score.” CNBC, CNBC, 10 Mar. 2021, https://www.cnbc.com/select/how-student-loans-impact-credit-score/.
Reinicke, Carmen. “Student Loan Debt Hurts the Mental Health of Most Borrowers, Survey Finds.” CNBC, CNBC, 29 Jan. 2022, https://www.cnbc.com/2022/01/29/student-loan-debt-hurts-the-mental-health-of-most-borrowers.html.
One thought on “Sofia Cabreja – peer review/draft”
Sofia–this reads like a finished product/ essay. This purpose if this assignment was to outline your conclusion and premises to ensure each one is arguable and relevant.