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To the editor:
This is in response to all the letters that have been published in the Sentinel concerning the student loan debt forgiveness, which by the way, is only $10,000 per student if you were not given the Pell grant or $20,000 if you were given the Pell Grant.
When most of the people that are moaning and groaning about this went to college -- more than likely in the 1970s -- the cost of attending a private college was the modern equivalent of $17,680 per year or $8,250 per year to attend a public college. Now it is closer to $48,510 to attend a private college or $21,370 to attend a public college.
As you can see the cost has nearly tripled. Is this fair or is just a case of the people that moaning and groaning about this just showing sour grapes?
The fact of the matter is that when you factor in the fees for borrowing the money and the interest your cost to go to college is at least triple what you borrowed in the first place. Yes, I know that there will be conservatives saying then they should not be going to college if they cannot afford it but in the modern job market if you don't have a degree you may not get that dream job.
I mean, come on conservatives, are you really that upset over a few students being granted a partial debt forgiveness? If you really want to get annoyed about something then maybe you should be annoyed about the PPP loan forgiveness that was for both full loans and partial.
As someone said to me, the students did not have to take the loans out, that person was right -- but on the other hand neither did business owners have to take out the PPP loans that, instead of helping their businesses out, went straight into the business owners' pockets.
What the local Republican party will forget to tell you is that there are Republican representatives on a national level that got PPP loan forgiveness. They are, and this is all public record: Vern Buchanan, R-Fla., had $2.6 million forgiven; Kevin Hern, R-Okla., had a $1.07 million debt forgiven; Mike Kelly, R-Pa., had a $974,1000 loan forgiven; Vicki Hartzler, R-Mo., had a $451,200 loan forgiven; Marjorie Taylor Greene had a $183,504 loan forgiven; and Matt Gaetz had a $482,321 loan forgiven. All the Republican representatives I mentioned are moaning about student debt forgiveness.
If the Republican Party is moaning and groaning about students being made to pay back the loans they took out then surely they should say the same about the businesses that got PPP loans. The hypocrisy on this issue that the right show on this issue shines through, the hypocrisy being that it is okay for the rich and business owners to have loans forgiven but not the poor. This issue alone shows that the Republican party does not care about the poor and working poor and that all they care about is corporations and businesses.
George Fisher
Lewistown