Millions of student loan borrowers breathing a sigh of
relief right now after President Biden announced his
massive plan for people struggling with debt, he's now
canceling $10,000 of student loan debt for those making
less than $125,000 a year. It was one of his key
promises during his presidential campaign. People c
start finally crawl out from under that mountain of
dead to get on top of their rent and the utilities to
finally think about buying a home or starting a family
or starting a business. The president's debt
cancelation plan also includes an additional $10,000 in
relief for pell grant recipients, continuing the paus
on low payments through decembe 31st of this year and
the loan repayment cap of 5% of a borrower's monthly
income joining us now to discuss what the website
inside higher ed is now calling an unprecedented act of
executive authority as president as president biden.
Secretary of Education, Miguel Cardona mr. Secretary,
thanks so much for giving us your first interview of
the day. We appreciate it. Good morning to you. Good
morning. Happy to be with you. Well, listen, this
debate has been swirling for months. Everyone is
waiting to see what the administration would do. An
now the plan is uh, is out there. Beyond the lofty
rhetoric of it. All the nuts and bolts is going to fall
to you and your agency according to an analysis. The
department has the ability to automatically cancel the
debt of eight million borrowers who already reported
their income as part of the FAFSA program, which I
remember from my days in school, those borrowers will
get automatic forgiveness, othe will have to apply
through an application. So talk about one the immediate
impact and what that application process looks like
because borrowers want to know. That's right. That's
right. Well look, we're excited about this opportunity,
just like during the pandemic businesses needed a
little bit of support to stay open americans right now
where we're investing in americ to make sure that we
can move forward. You mentioned eight million people
are not gonna have to do anything. We already have
enough information. We're gonna make the process simple.
You know, something that doesn't really go together
historically is loan, federal loans and simple. We're
gonna try to simplify the process. Make sure there's an
easy way for folks to share their information. Sim
information. There's gonna be an attestation. So what
people need to do now is go to stoop a dot gov slash
debt relief, sign up for the automatic emails and we'll
reach out to you in the coming weeks to make sure you
have the right information so you can benefit from what
about for our viewers that might have co signed onto
their Children's loans are are involved in their
Children's loans in some capacity. What does that mean
for them And is this just about borrowers in the pas
What does it mean for somebody who just signed up
yesterday. Right, right. Yeah, these are for folks who
have outstanding debts. So yes, you know those parent
plus loans, those also are included. But let me say
this, I think the loan forgiveness peace, which i
historical $20,000. If you're, how recipient that gets
a lot of attention, I'm just as proud of the work we're
doing for those folks who are going to take out loans
in the future. You mentioned earlier, you know, we
capping uh, loan payments in the future to 5% of
someone's salary, not 10% that's called income driven
repayment. We're not gonna ask folks to pay for more
than they can afford. That's gonna make higher
education, much more accessible and we're going to cap
the interest to, I've heard from so many americans that
the interest is what kills them as for folks who are
single, who make 1 25 or household, the 2 50 who may be
feeling a little bit left out this morning, who would
say well because of inflation or the very or the rising
cost of raising their kids, 1 25 is a single person or
2 50 as a family is not rich and is not as much money
as it may sound uh, to other people. So what do you sa
to them if they're feeling a little left out after kind
of being implicitly defined as, as wealthy at least in
terms of in the context of this point. Well, we
certainly know that we're not rich, you know, if you
make 100 $25,000 but the intent of the loan package
loan forgiveness package is to really support those in
the middle class and those who are struggling
financially get back on their feet post pandemic, right
We recognize that there are others who are not gonna be
getting benefits from that part of it, but with the
income driven repayment, everyo can benefit from that.
And that's gonna help reduce payments for loans by half.
If it's, you know, we went from 10% of your income,
your disposable income to 5% that's cutting payments in
half. So everyone can benefit from that. This is of
course an extraordinary use of executive power to
address this, the president decided not to go through
Congress to enact this. And it's drawing some criticism
and, and sparking a debate about fairness, which ro
was just touching a second ago. Um, what concerns do
you have for one about legal challenges to this
executive power and criticism I'm gonna just cite
Minority Leader mitch McConnell or the top republican
in the Senate calling it a slap in the face to working
americans who fact sacrifice to pay their debt or made
different career choices to avoid debt, like maybe not
going to college. Right Well, look, you know, as they
made analysis uh, to before when businesses were
struggling and we provided support to keep them open,
that helps them, That helps our economy right now,
everyday americans are struggling and we're providing
the same level of support that and we do have the
authority to do that under the heroes act. So we're
doing that now to the argument about people who are
saying, well look, I didn't go to college because of
the cross for, I paid off my debt. We're trying to help
people prevent them from going into default. Um, in
these actions. You know, if people go into default,
it's gonna hurt the local economy. It's gonna hurt
everyone. And we're also helping those people that
maybe didn't go to top, but they have Children going to
college where they're gonna be paying, helping pay the
debt of someone in their family. Everyone knows so
that right now is struggling with college debt li
helping those people up helps the whole community and,
and you know, it's helping other americans and tha
what we're trying to do here is help as many americans
get out of this, uh, this financial, uh, hold that
they're in by providing some relief and a pathway out
of that. And you know, we know that the more debt
you're in, The less likely you are to get a move on and
buy a home or uh, get married or do other things. So
we're trying to help Americans get out of the financial
hole that they're in. So we can continue to see our
economy thrive. Uh, we're talking about your beloved
Connecticut for a second. You, as you mentioned, you're
a former fourth grade teacher, a former principal, th
youngest in the state at that time at 27, which is
pretty remarkable. But you look across the landscape
right now at some of the strikes were seeing in larg
systems, you're looking at problems hiring and
retaining teachers are really critical short of the
worst in recent memory. COVID fatigue, which has made
the job more, more difficult. Teachers out there s
paying for their own supplies and worried about thei
own, their own salary as we start this new school year.
And not to mention of course, the violence issue that
jay alluded to as well after the tragedy in Uvalde. E.
What is your message to the teachers of America as this
new year gets under way. How do you help them keep the
faith But look, we have an opportunity this year to
provide students with the best experience. They've
suffered a lot. Our schools have suffered a lot. Our
teachers, look, I'm really, I feel confident that this
is gonna be the best year yet, right We're gonna cat
up our students, we're gonna lift up our teachers were
gonna, you know, rise above the political divide and
the culture wars that some are trying to fabricate and
we're gonna partner up with parents. This is our year
and these are the same folks that were able to switch
on a dime that we're able to bend over backwards whe
the pandemic hit and provide their students with
support. I'm confident that these are the same people
that are gonna get us through this and with regard to
the teacher shortage. Look, that's a symptom of the
teacher respect issue that we have in this country. So
let's focus on competitive salaries. Let's focus on
better working conditions for our educators. Let's
let's focus on using teacher voices. We imagine our
schools, we have tremendous potential this year. I'm
confident that these same educators that did what they
did in the last two years are gonna make education
better in this country. I'm looking forward to a great
year. We know that your your time is in demand today in
light of of all the news. Thanks for giving us here. Uh,
Newsy a few minutes. We appreciate. Mr Secretary, th
you so much. Take care