Outgoing Secretary of Education Betsy DeVos urged against student loan forgiveness in letter to Congress

U.S. Education Secretary Betsy Devos speaks during a White House coronavirus disease (COVID-19) task force briefing at the U.S. Education Department in Washington, U.S., July 8, 2020. REUTERS/Carlos Barria

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Outgoing Secretary of Education Betsy DeVos advised against student loan forgiveness in a letter sent to Congress Monday, which was obtained by CBS News and Politico.

In what appeared to be a farewell letter to Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell, DeVos reflected “on the past four years and the conversations we have had together” and shared some “closing thoughts” with the Kentucky senator.

DeVos outlined a number of talking points in the letter, including considering allocating direct federal funding to students.

“Let me urge you instead to provide for students the opportunity to pursue meaningful, challenging, and rewarding learning opportunities,” DeVos wrote. “Let me encourage you to fund education — that is, learning – not a Department of Education. Let me urge you to fund students, not school buildings.”

She also dismissed student loan forgiveness in the letter — a policy in which President-elect Joe Biden has expressed support during his upcoming term. Biden has previously proposed making undergraduate education free in some cases and expanding college federal loan programs. He also suggested giving student loan borrowers $10,000 in loan forgiveness as part of coronavirus relief.

Read more: What a Biden presidency could mean for America’s student-loan debt crisis

DeVos, in contrast, urged Congress to reject such a proposal.

“Importantly, I hope you also reject misguided calls to make college ‘free’ and require the two-thirds of Americans who didn’t take on student debt or who responsibly paid off their student loans to pay for the loans of those who have not done the same,” she wrote in the letter.

“Across-the-board forgiveness of college debts is not only unfair to most Americans, it is also the most regressive of policy proposals – rewarding the wealthiest sector of our labor force at the expense of the poorest,” she continued.

In December, DeVos extended student loan forbearance through the end of January. Previously, more than 40 million student loan borrowers in the US weren’t expected to make payments again until the end of 2020, setting up a complicated situation for both borrowers and the incoming Biden administration.

Though student loan forbearance is set to expire at the end of the month, the bipartisan $908 billion coronavirus relief package signed by President Donald Trump does not include additional forbearance. It is not immediately clear what the incoming Biden administration will do with regards to the policy from the time he is inaugurated on January 20 to its expiration date on January 31.

SEE ALSO: Student loan borrowers aren’t expected to make payments again until the end of January 2021

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