Gov. Ron DeSantis is sounding off about “sociology” degrees as bad value in his latest denunciation of President Joe Biden’s restructuring of student loan debt obligations.
“He doesn’t have the authority to do. It is to basically say, you know, ‘If you’re a truck driver, you didn’t go to college, you don’t have student debt. Sorry, you’re going to have to pony up to pay the student loans of somebody, you know, who maybe got a degree in sociology or something and is not gainfully employed and can’t afford the loans.’ That is not fair,” DeSantis said in St. Petersburg.
The Governor also denounced a more familiar fictional trope that he likes to invoke — so-called “zombie studies” — in his extended denunciation of the President’s purported lack of “constitutional authority” to “unilaterally cancel loans.”
According to ZipRecruiter, it is possible for Floridians to make a living wage of close to $50,000 per year with a sociology degree, though that number is roughly $20,000 below the national average, in yet another illustration of depressed wages in an increasingly expensive state.
DeSantis, who advanced a student loan proposal during his failed presidential campaign, hit familiar themes Wednesday, blaming “free money” from the federal student loan program for the “administrative bloat” at colleges.
He has eliminated some parts of that proposal from his remarks on the subject, including a suggestion that student loans should be dischargeable in bankruptcy proceedings as was the case before 2003, when then-U.S. Sen. Biden helped to foreclose that option for students struggling with high debt burdens and interest rates.
Unlike consumer debt, student loan borrowers have faced what amounts to a lifetime sentence with these burdens until recent reforms under Biden’s presidential administration, which continue to be fought by Republicans.
Among those Republicans fighting the Biden administration: Attorney General Ashley Moody, who joined the Missouri v. Biden lawsuit this week objecting to the Saving on a Valuable Education (SAVE) Plan, enacted by U.S. Department of Education rulemaking.
The SAVE plan “is the newest income-driven repayment (IDR) plan,” and it offers benefits for borrowers that include the elimination of “100% of remaining monthly interest for both subsidized and unsubsidized loans,” the Department notes.
These interest burdens can vary for borrowers based on when they happened to go to school, as that determines interest rates, with an arguably disproportionate burden on those who went to school before the low-interest rate period after the 2008 economic crash and before pandemic spending from Donald Trump and Biden.
“We will fight in court to make sure that hard-working Americans, who are struggling to buy groceries thanks to Biden, are not on the hook for other people’s debt,” the second-term Republican from Plant City pledged.
The post Gov. DeSantis slams sociology degrees in latest student loan bailout bash appeared first on Florida Politics – Campaigns & Elections. Lobbying & Government..