Elizabeth Warren Wants to Start Erasing Student Debt on Her First Day in the White House

WASHINGTON — Sen. Elizabeth Warren (D-Mass.) has already pledged that, if elected president, she would erase student-loan debt for the vast majority of the 45 million borrowers in America. On Tuesday, she went one step further, saying she would use executive authority to begin wiping out student debt on the first day of a Warren presidency.

She appears to be the first 2020 presidential candidate to have a day-one plan to use presidential executive authority on student-debt relief. In all, borrowers currently hold more than $1.5 trillion in student-loan debt in this country, a slow-motion crisis that economists say dampens home purchases, starting new businesses, saving for retirement, and even getting married.

Warren’s new plan says the Department of Education has the authority to “modify, compromise, waive, or release” student loans under the nation’s flagship law for colleges and universities, the Higher Education Act. This authority, Warren’s plan says, “provides a safety valve for federal student loan programs, letting the Department of Education use its discretion to wipe away loans even when they do not meet the eligibility criteria for more specific cancellation programs.”

Right now, federal student loans managed by the Education Department comprise roughly $9 out of every $10 in total student debt. On the first day of her presidency, Warren says she’d direct the Education Department to begin reducing or eliminating huge swaths of that debt to meet her ultimate goal of canceling up to $50,000 in student-loan debt for an estimated 42 million people who qualify for relief under her agenda.

https://www.rollingstone.com/politics/politics-news/elizabeth-warren-student-debt-relief-plan-day-one-presidency-937357/