LEWISBURG – Bucknell University Associate Professor of Accounting Dr. Stacy Mastrolia didn’t agree with the timing of President Joe Biden’s student loan forgiveness announcement.
She told WKOK’s On The Mark its ‘disastrous,’ “Its clearly a ploy for the midterm elections. It’s right in the middle of this high inflation period of time. There’s many other ways we could’ve targeted individuals who are actually suffering from hardship. Instead, in my opinion, they took the easy out.”
Dr. Mastrolia adds this announcement came while the U.S. Department of Education was already proposing several changes to student loan payment calculations. This would have created lower monthly payments when the student loan payment pause ends in January.
Mastrolia says the Biden Administration hasn’t said where the money to cover this is going to come from, so it’s likely to add to the national debt, “And it adds the same questions about tax increases in the future because obviously somebody has to pay off the debt created by the COVID distributions as well as now this being somewhere between $300 and 900 billion.”
She also says people benefiting from student loan forgiveness could use that money to spend on goods and services, and that could lead to more price increases.
Mastrolia admitted colleges today are investing more and more into many infrastructure and amenities for students, which have driven up tuition costs, “I think to some extent the colleges are trying to satisfy what they perceive to be the demand of the families and the families compare schools, and the student says ‘oh, this one has a pool.’ I think students are deciding on more than just education.”
You can hear more of Mastrolia’s analysis on the WKOK.com Podcast Page or wherever you listen to podcasts.
