Editor, The Beacon:
Supporters of student-loan forgiveness claim that this policy offers multiple benefits, including economic stimulus, reduction of disparities, and financial relief for borrowers, enabling many to start a family, buy a home, save for retirement or start a business.
There are other way more deserving groups of Americans who should be targeted for federal attention, and they should be at the head of the line to enjoy the benefits said to accrue from the loan-forgiveness program.
Let’s start with a glaring inequity that affected African Americans in the Greatest Generation. The GI Bill was structured in a way that ultimately shut doors for the 1.2-million Black veterans who served their country during World War II.
The GOP should be doing more than simply criticizing President Joe Biden and the Democrats for the loan-forgiveness program. Call them out for not righting wrongs done generations ago (and which continue today). Call them out for catering to the well-heeled. Research shows the White House plan favors higher-income Americans.
If we can find the 45 million who will benefit from loan forgiveness, surely we can pinpoint the families of those Black Americans who served their country during World War II. We can find a way to erase the injustice of denying them the benefits of the GI Bill.
There is only so much federal largesse to go around. Let’s make sure it goes to the most deserving, especially when they have been denied what they earned.
John Bethel
DeLand
