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Clear to partly cloudy. Low 57F. Winds light and variable..

Clear to partly cloudy. Low 57F. Winds light and variable.

President Biden has announced plans to shave $10,000 to $20,000 off existing student loan debts that were administered by Uncle Sam.

This will ease the burden of many. The average borrower owes about $37,000 – which takes a long time to pay off.

My heart, though, goes out to those students who made sacrifices to avoid amassing debt in the first place.

Such as Mike C., one of my freshman roommates (we were tripled up), whose financial aid featured a job at the school grill. He toiled hard at that job, and at summer jobs, which allowed him to afford tuition and board.

Jobs, scholarships, and grants are forms of aid. But a loan is just debt. It should not be considered “aid.”

The idea of borrowing is repugnant to debt-averse people such as myself. Though I did not borrow for college, I made difficult decisions to keep within budget.

For instance, I did not apply to any private schools. State schools only. If I had been willing to borrow, I would have applied to Sarah Lawrence College, whose writing program and small student body appealed to me.

Instead I settled for a state university, where a student who applies himself receives a quality education. (Those who don’t apply themselves don’t belong in college in the first place.)

To house more students, the university offered a discount to freshmen who tripled up in a dorm room meant for two. I accepted the offer, solely to save money. Since I was the smallest, I ended up on the top half of a double-bunk-bed.

Soon I realized money could be saved by paring back on the meal plan. The full plan was 20 meals a week (Sunday was just brunch and supper), but I could get by with less. So I dropped lunch from my meal plan.

Tons of students slept through breakfast every day, wasting their parents’ money – or wasting borrowed money – on meals they’d never eat. Those chronic late-risers should have dropped breakfast.

For full-time students, the school charged tuition per semester, not per course credit. I calculated that by taking one extra course each semester, I could graduate in seven semesters instead of eight. And save a full semester’s worth of tuition (and room and board). So I increased my course load.

After two years in school, I found further savings by moving off campus. Had a studio to myself in a single occupancy hotel where some floors had been converted into dorm rooms. No more meal plan! This allowed me to eat what I wanted, when I wanted. My “kitchen” was a tea kettle, a one-burner hot plate, and a sauce pan for heating canned vegetables. No counter. Cooked on the floor.

A rented mini-refrigerator completed the set-up. I stocked it with cottage cheese, cream cheese, peanut butter, celery, and carrots. And always kept bananas and bread handy.

Moving off campus meant I was about four miles from school, so I had to pay attention to commuting time. The school provided excellent (and free) bus service, to help students away from the main campus shuttle back and forth.

Only a small percentage of the buses went as far as where I lived, but that was okay. Any of the buses would take me to a point a mile or so from my destination, and I could walk the rest of the way.

Wealthier students had cars and didn’t have to worry about bus schedules.

I worked hard to avoid student debt. So I’m not a fan of Biden’s plan. But let it happen. I can accept it.

Just wish, though, the government would exit the student loan business.

Seems to me a big reason schools charge so much is because they know that whatever the bill, the student can borrow the money from the government.

Drop the government loans, and schools will be forced to lower their prices to maintain enrollment levels. Even if it means providing fewer luxuries.

Without government loans, students determined to get an education and with a need for “aid” can still try borrowing from a bank.

A guy I know never graduated (couldn’t be bothered with classwork) yet borrowed money for six years at college, because to him it was easier to borrow and live on campus and be fed and roomed than leave school and enter the real world.

The government kept lending him the money.

One maxim I learned as a teenager: “He who lends to all who will borrow shows great good will but little wisdom.”

Our government is showing great good will.

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