Canceling Student Debt Is Easier Than It Sounds
NPRCanceling Student Debt Is Easier Than It Sounds Enlarge this image toggle caption Patrick Semansky/AP Patrick Semansky/AP Sen. Elizabeth Warren, D-Mass., has pledged to cancel up to $50,000 of debt for 95% of student loan borrowers if she is elected president. "Maybe it's because they've been working in a public service position or because they become disabled or because they're saying that their school fundamentally cheated them," says Eileen Connor, legal director of the Project on Predatory Student Lending at the Legal Services Center of Harvard Law School. Included in the legislation is one tightly packed sentence that says the government's appointed student loan commissioner "shall have the power to agree to modifications of agreements or loans made under this title and to compromise, waive, or release any right, title, claim, or demand, however arising or acquired under this title." Still, Herrine says, a new administration could almost certainly find a legal workaround, and Warren pledged in her announcement "that loan cancellation will not result in any additional tax liability for borrowers."