Is Student Debt Forgiveness Progressive?
Forgiving student debt would benefit more than just the wealthy — but that doesn't mean we should be completely on board.
Graduating students celebrate at the end of a commencement address on May 16, 2001 at Columbia University in New York City. Spencer Platt / Getty
David Leonhardt has a piece at the New York Times that argues that eliminating student debt is not progressive. The main point of the piece is that high-income families have higher student debt levels than low-income families and that across-the-board student debt relief would therefore benefit high-income families more than low-income families.
In light of Leonhardt’s article and the flurry of social media activity that followed it, I figured it’d helpful to provide a variety of measures of the student debt distribution.
Student Debt by Income Quintile
As Leonhardt notes, student debt is positively related to income. The richest 20 percent of young families have an average student debt level of $21,186, while the student debt level of the poorest 20 percent stands at $9,679.
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