Canceling student debt would relieve graduates like me of responsibility for our decisions

Sen. Bernie Sanders, I-Vt., proposed a plan this week to cancel all $1.6 trillion in outstanding student debt, and Rep. Ilhan Omar, D-Minn., backed his efforts with an emoji-filled tweet.

The average student loan debt is estimated at just under $30,000. And as someone with an average amount of student debt from both public and private universities, canceling all my debt sure sounds appealing at first. Of course I’d love to not pay that bill every month.

Then I remember, I left a private college to go to a state university to minimize my student debt. While I did leave with debt, it is less than I would have had I spent four years at a private university. But that was a choice I made. I also made the choice not to go back to school for a law degree or master’s degree due to the outrageous cost of higher education.

If bailouts are where Congress is headed, perhaps I made the wrong choice — because canceling all student debt would reward poor decision-making and lump its burden on those of us who made responsible choices.

When considering whether to go back to school, I talked to professionals in my desired field and learned that pursuing an advanced degree would be fiscally irresponsible. So I opted not to, and did not leave the workforce for multiple years or take out $100,000 in loans in pursuit of a masters degree.

That was a choice I made. I also made the choice to take out loans for a bachelor’s degree. I’m now paying for that choice. I made the choice to take out a loan for a vehicle. I’m paying the loans on that choice. I made the choice to spend beyond my means on my credit card, and I’m paying for that as well.

Actions have consequences. That is, unless the federal government decides to forgive all of my financial decisions.

Is the federal government really going to cancel $1.5 trillion in student loan debt? Likely not. If they do, how can they possibly stop there? Eventually, they will have to pay off not only my but every citizens’ vehicle loans, credit card debt, and mortgages. And then it won’t be long before our dear friends on Capitol Hill will shout about the inhumanity of not paying off every debt of undocumented residents as well.

We must turn away from this endless conversation about bailing out graduates, and instead ask: How did student debt become so formidably high in the first place?

American universities continue to raise tuition, all in an effort to construct new buildings, hire additional administrative staff, and raise salaries. Meanwhile, the cost of textbooks continues to rise even as the cost of other books remains steady. Perhaps university administrators should be called before Congress to testify on what they did that sent a generation of Americans into the workforce with crushing student debt as they watched from their ivory towers.

Bailey N. Griffith is writing fellow with America’s Future Foundation and is the Public Affairs and Digital Media Coordinator for the American Tort Reform Association. She previously served in the administration of New Mexico Governor Susana Martinez.