Sen. Elizabeth Warren: Cancelling Student Loan Debt 'Single Most Valuable Step' To Boost Economy

Hannah Uebele is a producer for Under the Radar with Callie Crossley and previously worked as associate producer for Boston Public Radio. She graduated from Tufts University with a B.S. in English and Environmental Studies. She's a proud Delawarean but has found herself saying "wicked" more and more often, so the Bostonian metamorphosis is well underway.Contact: hannah_uebele@wgbh.org

February 05, 2021

Updated August 07, 2023

Sen. Elizabeth Warren helped introduce a resolution Thursday that calls on President Joe Biden to cancel $50,000 of student debt for all borrowers.

“This is the single most valuable step that the president could take to boost our economy," Warren said Friday in an interview on Boston Public Radio. "It is the single most effective step the president could take to help close the Black-white wealth gap, and it is the single most effective step that the president could take to boost the fortunes of tens of millions of young people across this nation.”

Forty percent of people with student loan debt never got a college diploma, Warren said, and "now they are in the position of trying to pay off student loan debt on the kind of salaries you get when all you've got is a high school diploma."

Warren added that it's also important to look at the big picture — how student loan debt is affecting the country's economy, not just the individual.

"[Cancelling] $50,000 [of loan debt] would mean 85 percent of the folks with student loan debt would be debt-free," she said. "Which means the cancellation of student loan debt [is] really good for people who have student loan debt, but it’s good for you, and me, and everyone who doesn’t have student loan debt, because it’s good for our economy overall.”