Sen. Kamala Harris (D-CA), the Democratic nominee for vice president, said that a Biden-Harris administration would cancel student loan debt for some students at Historically Black Colleges and Universities (HCBUs) during a recent roundtable.
“In relation to the history of HBCUs, [students] decide to take on a profession of service, which often does not pay as well as if they go into the private sector and do other things,” Harris said at the roundtable discussion held at Florida Memorial University, a historically Black private university. “So for those students who come out and have jobs that pay less than $125,000, student-loan debt will also be forgiven.”Harris also promised to invest $70 billion in historically Black colleges and universities.
Harris made the remarks in response to Jaffus Hardrick, president of Florida Memorial University who spoke of the economic decline caused by the pandemic that has forced many students to reconsider attending college. Biden and Harris support student loan forgiveness. However, neither candidate supports wide-scale student loan forgiveness that would forgive all student loan debt.
“We want to support our young people for whatever they pursue by way of education after high school,” Harris said. “For some that will be a college and university, for some it will be a two-year program, or an apprenticeship, or something of that nature, and we want to make sure that we support them in that quest.”
