Loan forgiveness is a bad idea all around. There may be a relative handful of people who fit the description of being cheated by institutions (Trump University, anyone?), but I’d question whether those would have received federally backed loans anyway.
For students who attended an accredited university, loan forgiveness is complete BS. It’s extremely limited benefit, and unfair to almost everyone. Why should people who didn’t go to college, and people (like me) who paid off their loans now be paying for someone else’s?
The real problem is the cost of tuition, which this does nothing to help. In less than 4 years, the college student population will owe even more than they do now, the job market won’t be better, and they’ll want another handout.
If Joe and his pals really wanted to make an impact, they’d take exactly the same amount of money and divide it between the roughly 4,000 accredited colleges in the country who issue federal aid. That would come out to about $125M per. Provide that funding specifically for implementing measures to reduce tuition costs for all students. That sort of program would have a much broader benefit.
If he still wants to offer forgiveness to the people who have already graduated, fine. Expand the programs that credit students for working in the public sector, or provide a benefit for working on infrastructure improvements. Don’t just write checks to 25 year olds, stop giving away my money. Get something in exchange for it.