A Christian college president called out President Joe Biden’s student loan forgiveness plan for hurting colleges that do not take student federal loan money, Yahoo reported.
Dr. Benjamin Merkle, president of New Saint Andrews College (NSA) in Idaho, said that President Biden’s plan to cancel borrowers student loans “hurts colleges that opt out of the federal loan program” and sets the precedent for higher education to become reliant on the federal government, according to Yahoo. Biden announced in August his administration would cancel up to $20,000 in student loan debt for borrowers who received Pell Grants and $10,000 for borrowers who did not, but the plan is currently held up in federal court. (RELATED: Biden Pretty Much Admitted His Student Loan Gambit Is Illegal)
“Our principled decision allows us to stay true to our mission by not being encumbered by the strings attached to federal money,” Merkle reportedly said. “And it keeps our tuition setting tuned to the actual price signals of the free market. When the Federal government subsidizes the rest of American colleges and universities, it penalizes colleges that prefer to carry their own weight.”
Merkle referred to the partnership between universities and the federal government as “Big Ed” and equated it to businesses that “abuse power to get easy money,” according to Yahoo. He said that higher education institutions should remove themselves from receiving federal dollars, which are paid for by taxpayers, to have “more freedom to operate in intelligent ways.”
Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer (D-NY) speaks during a press conference held to celebrate U.S. President Joe Biden cancelling student debt on Capitol Hill on September 29, 2022 in Washington, DC. (Photo by Jemal Countess/Getty Images for We, The 45 Million)
The Biden administration’s student loan forgiveness plan hit the breaks after a Texas federal judge ruled that it was an “unconstitutional exercise of Congress’s legislative power.” The Supreme Court agreed in December to hear two cases against the plan, including one from two plaintiffs who are not eligible for forgiveness and another from a coalition of states that argue the plan hurts their tax revenue.
The hearings are expected to take place before the court on Feb. 28, according to Forbes.
Merkle said that the plan should be rejected by the Supreme Court because it will damage the nation by making taxpayers foot the bill, according to Yahoo. He argued that the plan shifts student loan debt to taxpayers who did not attend college, teaches students that loans do not have to be paid back, stirs resentment toward higher education among taxpayers and makes colleges and universities reliant on federal handouts.
The student loan forgiveness plan would cost taxpayers more than $400 billion, according to Congressional Budget Office director Phillip Swagel.
NSA did not immediately respond to the Daily Caller News Foundation’s request for comment.
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