Forty percent of American voters believe AI will make achieving the American Dream even harder to reach. That is more than double the 16% of voters who see AI as helpful. And this isn’t abstract technophobia. This is a window into the profound anxiety many feel about economic security in an era when the traditional pathways to prosperity already seem increasingly out of reach.
A recent Rainey Center <a href="https://www.raineycenter.org/news/new-poll-voters-overwhelmingly-support-domestic-energy-independence-and-data-security">national poll of 2,011</a> likely voters reveals a pervasive pessimism about artificial intelligence (AI), along with deeper concerns about a rigged system. 
When asked about the future, 39% of respondents said AI makes them more pessimistic, compared to 20% who said it makes them more optimistic.
Remarkably, this fear is bipartisan.
Democrats, Republicans, and Independents all worry that technological disruption will compound rather than solve the challenges facing American families.
Yet, there’s reason for hope. One in five Americans sees AI’s potential to improve their economic prospects, and nearly a quarter believe it will make no difference to achieving the American Dream. These voters recognize what policymakers must internalize: AI could dramatically increase productivity, create new industries, improve healthcare outcomes, and free workers from dangerous or repetitive tasks.
The technology itself, however, isn’t the enemy. The question is whether we’ll ensure its benefits are broadly shared rather than narrowly concentrated. History shows that technological revolutions can lift entire societies when paired with smart policy. The challenge is making that happen deliberately rather than hoping it occurs by accident.
This AI anxiety doesn’t exist in a vacuum. It sits atop a foundation of economic stress and fading opportunity, particularly for younger generations. While 77% of the Silent Generation and 51% of Baby Boomers feel their lives are or were better than their parents’, only 31% of Millennials and 35% of Gen Z share this optimism. When we asked directly whether the American Dream has become more or less attainable over the past decade, an overwhelming 64% said less attainable, with one-third calling it “much less attainable.”
<div id="attachment_984319" style="width: 586px" class="wp-caption aligncenter"><img loading="lazy" decoding="async" aria-describedby="caption-attachment-984319" class="size-large wp-image-984319" src="https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2025/10/MixCollage-10-Oct-2025-11-46-AM-3234-576x576.jpg" alt="Credit: Joseph Rainey Center for Public Policy" width="576" height="576" srcset="https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2025/10/MixCollage-10-Oct-2025-11-46-AM-3234-576x576.jpg 576w, https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2025/10/MixCollage-10-Oct-2025-11-46-AM-3234-300x300.jpg 300w, https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2025/10/MixCollage-10-Oct-2025-11-46-AM-3234-150x150.jpg 150w, https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2025/10/MixCollage-10-Oct-2025-11-46-AM-3234-768x768.jpg 768w, https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2025/10/MixCollage-10-Oct-2025-11-46-AM-3234-1536x1536.jpg 1536w, https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2025/10/MixCollage-10-Oct-2025-11-46-AM-3234-2048x2048.jpg 2048w" sizes=" (max-width: 576px) 100vw, 576px" />Credit: Joseph Rainey Center for Public Policy</div>
The fear isn’t that AI will create a different future — voters fear that AI will accelerate trends already making life harder. Young Americans today face a housing market disconnected from wage growth, with 21% of Gen Z citing housing as a top national challenge compared to just 6% of Boomers. They’re burdened by education debt that earlier generations never faced. And now they’re being told that automation and AI may disrupt the very jobs they’re counting on to build their economic security.
The American Dream itself remains remarkably consistent: financial stability and homeownership top the list across all demographics. But the gap between aspiration and reality has never been wider. Only 22% of voters believe they’ve achieved the American Dream, while 36% feel it’s completely out of reach. Among Millennials, 40% believe the dream is unattainable for them.
This crisis of faith in American opportunity has political consequences. While voters give Republicans a slight edge over Democrats (39% to 33%) on supporting the American Dream, a striking 28% believe neither party is aligned with this goal. When nearly one in three Americans see no champion for their economic aspirations, we face a dangerous void in our politics.
The economy (34%) and inflation (29%) dominate voter concerns, bread-and-butter issues that AI anxiety amplifies rather than replaces. People aren’t worried about robot overlords; they’re worried about paying the mortgage, affording healthcare, and whether their children will have opportunities they did not.
Technology has always disrupted labor markets, but past disruptions occurred when basic economic mobility still functioned for most Americans. Today, AI arrives at a moment when millions already doubt that the system works for them. That timing matters enormously.
We need policies that will address both immediate economic pressures and longer-term technological change. Housing affordability, education access, and ensuring that economic growth translates into broadly shared prosperity aren’t separate from the AI question. They’re the foundation that determines whether technological change lifts us up or leaves us behind.
The American Dream isn’t dead, but it’s under siege from multiple directions. The question is whether we’ll recognize the urgency before another generation loses faith entirely.​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​
* * *
Sarah E. Hunt is President of the Joseph Rainey Center for Public Policy, a think tank and leadership community based in Washington, D.C.
Amelia Powers Gardner is a Utah County Commissioner and National Chair of the Leadership Alliance for a More Perfect Union (LAMP), a national program cultivating the next generation of conservative leaders.
The views expressed in this piece are those of the author and do not necessarily represent those of The Daily Wire.
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New Poll: Voters Fear AI Will Make The American Dream Even Harder To Reach

Artificial Intelligence

Big Tech

Economy

Gen X

Gen Z

Housing

Millennials

Poll

Student Loans

The “One Big, Beautiful Bill,” backed by President Donald Trump and awaiting passage in the Senate, would revolutionize how colleges distribute student loans, disincentivizing schools from saddling students with debt for degrees that don’t lead to employment.
The move would not just provoke left-wing colleges that have been a thorn in Republicans’ side, but also provide a practical, good-governance change that could save taxpayers billions and prevent people from being saddled with student loan payments they can&#8217;t afford.
Under the bill, colleges will have “skin in the game,” meaning if they churn out dropouts or graduates with a particular major who can&#8217;t afford to pay their student loans, the college will have to eat those costs. That makes it in their interest to discourage people from going into debt for programs in useless or low-quality fields, admitting students who are unlikely to be able to complete a useful program, or charging such high tuition that the increase in earnings isn&#8217;t worth it.
Colleges will no longer be able to admit an endless stream of people who take $150,000 in student loans for a gender studies degree when half of them default on their loans and stick taxpayers with the bill. Schools will have to reimburse the federal government for missed loan payments based on the percentage in a “program of study,” meaning a major within a particular school, who drop out or don’t see increased earnings based on the degree.
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A “value-added earnings” amount is calculated for graduates of each program based on their median salary four years after completing an undergraduate or doctoral degree, or two years after an associate’s or master’s degree. It looks at how much higher that salary is than 150% of the poverty level for those with undergraduate degrees, or 300% of the poverty level for people with graduate credentials. The number is further adjusted based on the cost-of-living in the metro area of the university, even though graduates may not be working in that region.
How much money schools have to repay is based on the relationship between total tuition cost and value-added earnings. Divide the median value-add by median cost of attendance. That&#8217;s the percentage of missed principal and interest payments that taxpayers will eat. Colleges must reimburse the government for the rest.
Let’s say a class of students spends four years earning degrees in critical race theory, with tuition of $50,000 a year, totaling of $200,000. Four years after that, at 26 years old, they are making a median of $30,000 in their jobs. The poverty level is $15,650, so college graduates should be expected to make more than 150% of that, or $23,475. That means the CRT program has value-added earnings of $6,525. Divide that by the cost of attendance, and you get 3%. When those graduates failed to make loan repayments, the colleges would have to eat 97% of the revenue that would otherwise be lost by taxpayers.
Left-wing colleges have also put taxpayers and impoverished young people at risk by lowering admissions standards — often in the name of diversity, equity, and inclusion — to the point where huge portions of those admitted aren&#8217;t capable of college-level work and wind up dropping out. Then, they default on their loans since they incur costs but do not earn a degree.
The <a href="https://www.congress.gov/bill/119th-congress/house-bill/1/text">Big Beautiful Bill</a> would force colleges to own the results of their admissions decisions, with a separate reimbursement rate for missed student loan payments by people who dropped out of a given academic program. Colleges would have to reimburse the government for dropouts&#8217; missed loan repayments based on the percentage of community college students who didn&#8217;t graduate in six years, and other students who didn&#8217;t complete the program within 150% of its expected time.
Let&#8217;s say a disreputable college is admitting people with abysmal math SAT scores, and using them as cash cows to pay reams of administrators and faculty who claim they&#8217;re making math majors out of them. All of the students are impoverished and pay tuition using student loans, and six years later, only half of them actually graduated. The other half defaulted on their student loans, missing a combined million dollars in payments per year. The school would have to reimburse the federal government for half of that amount, or $500,000.
The bill&#8217;s education provisions are aimed not just at mitigating taxpayers&#8217; losses, but correcting the root cause: colleges should not admit people who are likely to drop out, and they should not encourage people to take on debt to major in things like art history. If they do offer majors that don&#8217;t lead to gainful employment, they can protect their bottom line by making sure tuition is low, making it easier to hit the required ratio.
The rates are calculated only based on people who take student loans, so if people really want to major in dance, knowing that most of them won&#8217;t make money, they can do so if they pay using private sources of funding. Colleges are also empowered to protect themselves the same way banks do when making an investment they know is risky, by limiting the amount of student loans people can use for particular majors.
The bill also stops students from taking out huge amounts of student loans. That comes after President Joe Biden waived billions of dollars in loan repayments, even though a court told him he didn’t have the authority. Democrats pushed the initiative by highlighting the sob stories of people who had hundreds of thousands of dollars in student loans, and whose lives have been ruined as a result.
Republicans say the best policy solution is making sure people never get in that situation to begin with. The bill caps lifetime federal student loans to $200,000, plus $50,000 in federal loans in a parent&#8217;s name. That will provide a strong disincentive for colleges to raise tuition, because they would lose out on many prospective customers if they do.
It also prevents the president from using executive orders or regulations that “would result in an increase in a subsidy cost.” Typically, when Democrats have tried to make college more affordable by subsidizing more of the cost, colleges simply raise tuition by that amount and pocket the proceeds.
&#8220;Colleges should have a stake in their students’ success and be responsible for reimbursing taxpayers for a portion of their losses if students don’t see financial value from enrolling in an institution and can’t repay,&#8221; Republicans on the House Committee on Education and Workforce said.
&#8220;Students, families, and the federal government pay tens, sometimes hundreds, of thousands of dollars in tuition while many degrees offer students no additional value but leave graduates with debt. Too many are left worse off than if they never enrolled in the first place.&#8221;

Pro-Palestinian-Student-Protests-at-Columbia-University

Here’s How The Big Beautiful Bill Sticks It To Universities That Churn Out Unemployed Debtors

Donald Trump

Education

Universities

You will not find a legal theory that&#8217;s done more damage to this country in the last half century than the idea of &#8220;disparate impact.&#8221; Whether you realize it or not, this is a legal concept that has almost certainly impacted your life at some point, along with the lives of millions of other people. In short, disparate impact allows people to sue whenever a policy — whether it&#8217;s a government policy, or the policy of a private business — has a disproportionate effect on certain demographics. It doesn&#8217;t matter if the policy is intended to be discriminatory. It doesn&#8217;t matter if the policy is completely neutral, on its face. All that matters is whether the policy affects some demographics more than others.
To give just one example: If a written test for a police academy contains basic math questions — questions which are not racist in any way — the test is still considered to be illegal under the disparate impact theory if, say, 80% of black applicants fail it. The only way to survive a lawsuit under this theory is to prove that, in reality, the disparate impact is strictly necessary for some important purpose of the business or organization. 
In practice, especially in places like New York and California, this is extremely difficult to prove. After all, we&#8217;ve been told meritocracy is now a racist concept. Why do police officers need to understand that two plus two equals four, anyway? A lot of jurors actually think like this, especially the ones who won&#8217;t venture outside unless they&#8217;re wearing two masks and a portable ventilator. Therefore, most companies and government agencies, in the end, have decided to simply water down their standards, in order to avoid the possibility of litigation. Disparate impact was the precursor for affirmative action and &#8220;equity&#8221;, as it&#8217;s called today. Mediocrity has become the norm because it&#8217;s enforced by law.
We&#8217;ve all been conditioned to accept this status quo since the 1960s, even though it&#8217;s obviously contrary to basic principles of fairness and morality. Several administrations have come and gone, both Democrat and Republican, and disparate impact has remained untouched. But very abruptly, that changed yesterday, when the Trump administration issued an executive order formally <a href="https://www.whitehouse.gov/presidential-actions/2025/04/restoring-equality-of-opportunity-and-meritocracy/">ending</a> disparate impact in this country, in all contexts.
The order is called &#8220;RESTORING EQUALITY OF OPPORTUNITY AND MERITOCRACY&#8221; and, among other things, states: &#8220;disparate-impact liability has hindered businesses from making hiring and other employment decisions based on merit and skill.&#8221;
Therefore, according to the order signed by the president:
<blockquote>It is the policy of the United States to eliminate the use of disparate-impact liability in all contexts to the maximum degree possible to avoid violating the Constitution, Federal civil rights laws, and basic American ideals.</blockquote>
Yes, there will be inevitable legal challenges to this executive order. Yes, Congress should immediately pass this executive order into law in order to insulate it, as much as possible, from Obama-appointed judges in Washington. But even as it stands, already, this executive order is a major step towards reforming America&#8217;s failing institutions. It&#8217;s part of a broader effort by this administration to end the era of racial grievance, which has made a husk out of everything it touched. In particular, it&#8217;s helped destroy the educational system in this country, which is now fixated on spreading propaganda instead of teaching students the skills they need to survive and function in society. Universities currently spend most of their time administering affirmative action programs, and teaching students about the evils of white supremacy and colonialism. It&#8217;s a complete waste of time — actually, it&#8217;s even worse than a waste of time — and everyone knows it.
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Now the Trump administration, with this executive order on disparate impact, is doing something about it. And it&#8217;s clear that the administration had the education system in mind yesterday when they issued this executive order, because on Wednesday, the administration also took several other actions aimed at reforming America&#8217;s colleges. One of those executive <a href="https://www.whitehouse.gov/presidential-actions/2025/04/reforming-accreditation-to-strengthen-higher-education/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">orders</a>, for example, is called &#8220;REFORMING ACCREDITATION TO STRENGTHEN HIGHER EDUCATION.&#8221; 
The text of this order points out that the national six-year undergraduate graduation rate in this country currently stands at just 64%. Yes, just 64% of undergraduates currently finish college on time.
Additionally, roughly 25% of undergraduate programs and 40% of graduate programs ultimately yield a negative return on investment for students. The Trump administration is therefore requiring an overhaul of the process through which schools are accredited. If schools can&#8217;t demonstrate a commitment to merit, instead of racial discrimination, then they won&#8217;t be accredited anymore. And for many universities, that would be a death knell. They&#8217;d immediately lose access to billions of dollars in federal funding for Pell Grants and student loans.
This is why, during the campaign, Donald Trump <a href="https://www.wsj.com/us-news/education/trump-accreditors-executive-order-universities-4e4366cc?mod=hp_lead_pos1">referred</a> to the accreditation process as his &#8220;secret weapon.&#8221; It&#8217;s a way to use the established powers of the federal government to compel schools to start upholding basic educational principles. For generations, the government hasn&#8217;t used these powers. We&#8217;ve allowed pretty much every school — from community colleges to Harvard — to get away with scamming their students, discriminating along racial lines, and teaching useless classes about &#8220;decolonizing Shakespeare&#8221; or whatever. At the same time, tuition has increased exponentially because the federal money has kept flowing, in the form of easy student loans. Then, to make matters worse, college students — many of them Left-leaning — have taken this loan money and refused to repay it. In other words, people who didn&#8217;t go to college are directly subsidizing people who spent four years earning useless degrees, and then became deadbeats who are unable (or unwilling) to pay their debts.
This fraud was enabled by the Biden administration, as you probably remember. In fact, even when the Supreme Court ruled that the Biden administration was breaking the law, they still refused to compel college graduates to pay off their loans.
Yesterday, however, the Trump administration ended this state-sanctioned fraud. They&#8217;re now beginning the collections process on these deadbeats — including federal employees who are about to have their pensions frozen. Watch:
<blockquote class="twitter-tweet" data-width="500" data-dnt="true">
White House press sec. Karoline Leavitt on defaulted student loan payments being sent to collections on May 5: “The government can and will collect defaulted federal student loan debt by withholding tax refunds, federal pensions and even their wages.” <a href="https://t.co/40ymqY435M">https://t.co/40ymqY435M</a> <a href="https://t.co/NbEgvs9o2h">pic.twitter.com/NbEgvs9o2h</a>
&mdash; ABC News (@ABC) <a href="https://twitter.com/ABC/status/1914736600547746069?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">April 22, 2025</a></blockquote>
<script async src="https://platform.twitter.com/widgets.js" charset="utf-8"></script>
&nbsp;
It&#8217;s a simple principle that everyone understands: If you borrow money, you should repay it. But Democrats attempted to suspend this principle during the last election campaign because they thought it would resonate with voters. And in some areas of the country, it did resonate. There&#8217;s a reason Joe Biden won the state of Virginia, where all of the so-called &#8220;public servants&#8221; live. But as it happens, the rest of the country wasn&#8217;t happy about assuming the debts of these alleged &#8220;public servants.&#8221; So they won&#8217;t have to assume those debts anymore.
There were other executive orders and actions that the Trump administration took yesterday concerning universities. For example, one order <a href="https://www.whitehouse.gov/presidential-actions/2025/04/transparency-regarding-foreign-influence-at-american-universities/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">requires</a> that universities disclose any foreign funding they might be receiving. The attorney general is tasked with overseeing compliance with this requirement as a matter of &#8220;national security.&#8221; This is a measure that&#8217;s obviously long overdue, especially after we learned that Joe Biden was stashing classified documents in his office space at the University of Pennsylvania&#8217;s &#8220;Penn-Biden Center,&#8221; which was funded extensively by the Chinese. Everyone knows that, for a long time, major universities in this country have been openly operating like de facto embassies for various countries that hate us. And now they could face criminal prosecution for doing so.
Another order that the president signed yesterday implements new procedures to <a href="https://www.whitehouse.gov/presidential-actions/2025/04/white-house-initiative-to-promote-excellence-and-innovation-at-historically-black-colleges-and-universities/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">improve</a> the quality of education at so-called &#8220;historically black colleges and universities,&#8221; which have struggled significantly in comparison to most other schools in the country. For many years, the federal government has simply flooded these schools with money, without any concern for how they&#8217;ve been wasting it. Now, pursuant to this executive order, the Trump administration will seek to &#8220;increase the private-sector role, including the role of private foundations&#8221; in funding these schools. In other words, the taxpayers won&#8217;t have as big a role.
All of these changes are necessary because, under the current arrangement, the university system in this country is failing. As a result, a lot of people — myself included — have made the rational decision to forgo college altogether. Bloomberg just published a lengthy report on this trend. Their report focuses on an 18-year-old student who just graduated from high school in Madison, Ohio, which is 45 minutes east of Cleveland. According to this student, neither he nor any of his male classmates will attend a four-year-university. They&#8217;re <a href="https://www.bloomberg.com/news/features/2025-04-21/why-american-men-think-it-s-not-worth-going-to-college-anymore?embedded-checkout=true" target="_blank" rel="noopener">opting out</a> of going to college, for one reason or another.
<blockquote>In this corner of the Midwest—where the median household income is $78,000 and the largest city is 47,000-strong Mentor—the share of men age 18-24 enrolled in college dropped by more than 15 percentage points in the decade through 2023, the biggest decline in any large county in the US. The average slide, by comparison, was about 3 percentage points. In 2013 half of the young men in Lake County were enrolled in college; 10 years later, that number was only 1 in 3, according to a Bloomberg Businessweek analysis of US Census Bureau data. Men opting out of college isn’t a new phenomenon: Women have outnumbered men in undergraduate enrollment for about 40 years, and the gap continues to widen. Almost half of women age 25-34 have earned a bachelor’s degree, according to Pew Research Center data; for men the rate is 37%. Between 2011 and 2022, the number of Americans attending college dropped by 1.2 million, with men accounting for almost the entirety of that drop. &#8230;. When Jennifer Schuller became president in 2023 of Lake Erie College, the only four-year college in Lake County, the drop in enrollment was palpable: She inherited a $5.6 million deficit. In the previous decade, the student body—which is majority men—had decreased by almost 20%.</blockquote>
As much as I may criticize the university system and as much as I encourage young people to not see college as the necessary default option right out of high school, I still maintain that this is not a decline worth celebrating. It&#8217;s a completely understandable decline, of course. Universities and colleges have done this to themselves. They&#8217;ve wasted hundreds of billions of dollars of taxpayer money, and all they&#8217;ve done is churn out a useless product that more and more people are foregoing because it&#8217;s too expensive and pointless. It&#8217;s completely rational for millions of students to stop attending these schools. That&#8217;s true. But ultimately, that&#8217;s not the outcome we should want. A functioning country should be able to offer 18-year-olds a variety of good schools to attend, if they want to master some highly specialized skill — whether it&#8217;s engineering or programming or medicine or whatever. That should always be an option for certain students. But we don&#8217;t have that anymore.
We have a system where, even if you&#8217;re a very smart individual who could theoretically become a doctor, you stand a very real chance of being denied admission to a medical school simply because you&#8217;re white, or because you have the wrong political beliefs. And if you&#8217;re confronted with that possibility, and you&#8217;re 18 years old, why would you bother with the whole process? Why not take a guaranteed job where your skills will pay you, right away? Why subject yourself to hundreds of thousands of dollars in debt and years of indoctrination, especially if it may not pay off — for reasons that are both completely unfair and completely outside your control?
Young people are asking these questions. And the only correct answer is to tell them that this insanity is coming to an end. Otherwise, the education system will continue to fail.
The good news is that finally — for the first time in a very long time — some action is being taken on this front. The other day we <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/the-lawyers-promoting-child-indoctrination-to-scotus-were-absolutely-humiliated" target="_blank" rel="noopener">talked</a> about efforts by elementary schools to indoctrinate children into the gender cult, and how it looks like the Supreme Court is about to put an end to those policies. Now we&#8217;re talking about how the Trump administration just issued an all-out blitz of executive orders that are designed to restore merit and competence to all of America&#8217;s institutions, including its universities. This is progress. It&#8217;s not a guarantee that these institutions will be saved — Harvard in particular is fighting back, as you&#8217;d expect — but it&#8217;s a start.
The truth is that the education system can either teach students, or it can attempt to brainwash them into the religion of leftism. Those are the options. There is no middle ground. And if there&#8217;s one thing this week has made clear, it&#8217;s that the current administration — unlike every other administration in recent history — understands that choice very well.

Trump To Sign Executive Order To Bolster AI Education, Workforce

The Education System Is Failing, But Change Is Coming

American Universities

College

Diversity Equity and Inclusion (DEI)

Matt Walsh

Opinion

President Trump

Student Loan Cancellation

Women

Unsurprisingly, there is tremendous fearmongering marked by falsehoods from the opposition regarding President Trump’s <a href="https://www.whitehouse.gov/presidential-actions/2025/03/improving-education-outcomes-by-empowering-parents-states-and-communities/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">executive order</a> to dismantle the U.S. Department of Education. Public school personnel are already claiming that special education funding has been cut and that closing the department will devastate their ability to educate students. These claims are unfounded.
Amongst the loudest clamoring are the teachers union bosses. Randi Weingarten, head of the second largest teachers union, the American Federation for Teachers, <a href="https://www.foxnews.com/media/randi-weingarten-spitting-mad-about-evisceration-education-department" target="_blank" rel="noopener">in her own words</a>, is “spitting mad.” Note this is the Weingarten who leveraged her political power to <a href="https://www.nationalreview.com/2021/05/biden-believes-in-science-so-long-as-the-teachers-unions-approve/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">directly influence the CDC</a> to keep public schools closed to children outrageously far longer than necessary.
Following the signing of the executive order, the American Federation for Teachers issued a <a href="https://www.aft.org/press-release/educators-professors-school-districts-unions-unite-challenge-trump-attempt-dismantle" target="_blank" rel="noopener">press release</a> announcing the filing of a lawsuit by a coalition of educators, school districts, and unions against the Trump administration. Regarding the recent cutting of the massive bureaucracy bloat within the federal department and those responsible for woke DEI initiatives, the press release <a href="https://www.aft.org/press-release/educators-professors-school-districts-unions-unite-challenge-trump-attempt-dismantle" target="_blank" rel="noopener">read</a>: “Mass firings of these hardworking people planned by the Trump administration will harm students and schools.”
Clearly overlooking the reality that public education is failing to effectively educate <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/new-national-test-scores-make-undeniable-case-for-school-choice" target="_blank" rel="noopener">seven out of ten</a> schoolchildren in the basics of reading and math, the teacher union is rushing to legal action in an attempt to maintain the status quo, which is a death sentence for children’s futures.
John B. King Jr, who was the U.S. Secretary of Education for a stint during the Obama administration, is another Democrat working overtime to dispense fear to Americans over the plan to dismantle the disastrous Department of Education. In a recent short <a href="https://www.npr.org/2025/03/28/nx-s1-5341462/trump-education-department-financial-aid-layoffs-arrests-international-students" target="_blank" rel="noopener">interview with NPR</a>, King kept his main talking point on repeat, asserting that “People are very worried.” Continuing, he commented about the things he’s “most worried about.” King went on, “…I’m very worried…” The painful and brief interview concluded with a final question to which King tripled down on his anxiety-spreading effort. “I’m really worried….I’m worried…I’m worried…”
The fearmongering is unfounded. President Trump, in his address prior to signing the “<a href="https://www.whitehouse.gov/presidential-actions/2025/03/improving-education-outcomes-by-empowering-parents-states-and-communities/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Improving Education Outcomes by Empowering Parents, States, and Communities</a>” executive order into law, <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZjnoGgEJvLs" target="_blank" rel="noopener">communicated</a> that “Pell Grants, Title I funding, resources for children with disabilities and special needs will be preserved — fully preserved.” He explained that those programs would be “redistributed to various other agencies and departments that will take very good care of them.”
More specifically, special education programs will <a href="https://www.c-span.org/program/white-house-event/president-trump-and-defense-secretary-hegseth-deliver-remarks-on-f-47-fighter-jet/657517" target="_blank" rel="noopener">move to</a> the Department of Health and Human Services. Student loans will <a href="https://www.c-span.org/program/white-house-event/president-trump-and-defense-secretary-hegseth-deliver-remarks-on-f-47-fighter-jet/657517" target="_blank" rel="noopener">head to</a> the Small Business Administration (SBA), which is a commonsense change from education policy personnel managing the <a href="https://www.campusreform.org/article/40-18-trillion-student-loans-late-payments-trump-seeks-abolish-dept-ed/27711" target="_blank" rel="noopener">$1.8 trillion loan portfolio</a>. And, importantly, states will be freed from the red tape of Washington D.C., empowering them to make decisions concerning how best to educate the children of their state.
So, what is being cut? Simply put, the billions of dollars spent fueling the promotion of radical ideologies to children, such as gender ideology, Critical Race Theory, and an anti-American worldview. As one example, on January 23, the U.S. Department of Education, under the president&#8217;s direction, <a href="https://www.ed.gov/about/news/press-release/us-department-of-education-takes-action-eliminate-dei" target="_blank" rel="noopener">began taking action</a> to “eliminate harmful Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion (DEI) initiatives.” That <a href="https://www.chalkboardnews.com/issues/cultural-issues/article_89d2f95a-da74-11ef-881f-c31173f69a5c.html?seyid=48320" target="_blank" rel="noopener">included</a> placing personnel who lead DEI initiatives on administrative leave, the deletion of more than 200 webpages of DEI resources that “promote or endorse” the “harmful ideological programs,” and ending DEI contracts totaling over $2.5 million.
Then, on January 29, President Trump signed the “<a href="https://www.whitehouse.gov/presidential-actions/2025/01/ending-radical-indoctrination-in-k-12-schooling/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Ending Radical Indoctrination in K-12 Schooling</a>” executive order. It <a href="https://www.whitehouse.gov/presidential-actions/2025/01/ending-radical-indoctrination-in-k-12-schooling/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">noted</a> that “In recent years…parents have witnessed schools indoctrinate their children in radical, anti-American ideologies while deliberately blocking parental oversight.” Specifically, the Secretary of Education, Secretary of Defense, and the Secretary of Health and Human Services must consult with the Attorney General to <a href="https://www.whitehouse.gov/presidential-actions/2025/01/ending-radical-indoctrination-in-k-12-schooling/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">create a plan</a> within 90 days to end indoctrination and protect parental rights.
Additionally, federal bureaucrats pushing paper in Washington D.C. have been cut. Already, <a href="https://www.ed.gov/about/news/press-release/us-department-of-education-initiates-reduction-force" target="_blank" rel="noopener">half of the positions</a> within the U.S. Department of Education have been eliminated as education rightfully returns to the states. Big government control of K-12 education has been a massive failure and has not increased student learning. Block granting the money back to the states will enhance efficiency and effectiveness while also providing increased accountability for student academic learning.
Don’t listen to the lies or anxiety-induced talking points. Dismantling the U.S. Department of Education is a win for America and a much-needed step forward toward the goal of successfully educating our future generation.
Hats off to President Trump for taking this longtime-coming, much needed action to ensure that gone will be the days of only three out of ten public school children learning to read or do math proficiently.
* * *
Dr. Keri D. Ingraham is a Senior Fellow at Discovery Institute, Director of the American Center for Transforming Education, and a Senior Fellow at Independent Women’s Forum.
The views expressed in this piece are those of the author and do not necessarily represent those of The Daily Wire.

Rally Held In Support Of Department Of Education And Schools

Fearmongering And Falsehoods Over Education Dept. Shutdown

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The <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/topic/biden-administration" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Biden administration</a> said Friday that it would cancel another $4.28 billion in <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/topic/student-loans" target="_blank" rel="noopener">student loan</a> debt for nearly 55,000 people, bringing the total amount of student debt forgiven by the administration to around $180 billion. 
The Department of Education <a href="https://www.ed.gov/about/news/press-release/biden-harris-administration-approves-additional-428-billion-student-debt-relief-nearly-55000-public-service-workers-0" target="_blank" rel="noopener">announced</a> that it was canceling the debt of 54,900 borrowers through the Public Service Loan Forgiveness (PSLF) Program. Although the Supreme Court <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/supreme-court-delivers-defeat-to-biden-admin-on-student-loan-forgiveness" target="_blank" rel="noopener">struck down</a> President Joe Biden&#8217;s broad student loan cancellation program last year, Biden has continued to cancel chunks of student loan debt through other programs. 
“Four years ago, the Biden-Harris Administration made a pledge to America’s teachers, service members, nurses, first responders, and other public servants that we would fix the broken Public Service Loan Forgiveness Program, and I’m proud to say that we delivered,” said Secretary of Education Miguel Cardona. 
The loan cancellation is the latest last minute leftist policy move from Biden as he approaches the final days of his administration. Biden is also <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/exclusive-biden-races-to-sell-off-border-wall-parts-before-trump-takes-office" target="_blank" rel="noopener">racing</a> to sell off border wall materials and move them away from the southern border and <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/feds-look-to-hire-up-to-1200-new-dei-bureaucrats-before-trump-takes-office" target="_blank" rel="noopener">looking</a> to hire up to 1,200 employees to work in diversity, equity, and inclusion positions.
The PSLF Program allows borrowers working in education, public health, law enforcement, and emergency response to have their debt canceled after making 120 monthly payments. 
&#8220;The U.S. Department of Education’s successful transformation of the PSLF Program is a testament to what’s possible when you have leaders, like President Biden and Vice President Harris, who are relentlessly and unapologetically focused on making government deliver for everyday working people,&#8221; Cardona added.
Republicans have challenged Biden’s student loan cancellation initiatives, saying they are an unconstitutional redistribution of wealth and a burden on the American taxpayer. 
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Earlier this month, 23 Republican attorneys general sent a <a href="https://ago.mo.gov/wp-content/uploads/2024-12-2-Student-Loan-NPRM-Interested-States-Comment-Letter.pdf" target="_blank" rel="noopener">letter</a> to Cardona warning the administration about another proposed<a href="https://www.federalregister.gov/documents/2024/04/17/2024-07726/student-debt-relief-for-the-william-d-ford-federal-direct-loan-program-direct-loans-the-federal"> rule</a> that would expand the Secretary of Education’s authority to “waive” debts to the department. 
“Everyone from the Supreme Court, to President Joe Biden, to former Speaker of the House Nancy Pelosi has publicly acknowledged that you do not have the authority to forgive debt except in the limited ways Congress clearly outlined. You must adhere to these warnings and follow the law,” the attorney generals wrote on December 3. 
In June 2023, the Supreme Court struck down Biden’s attempt to use the COVID-era HEROES Act to unilaterally forgive federally subsidized loans. 
“The Secretary asserts that the HEROES Act grants him the authority to cancel $430 billion of student loan principal. It does not,” the court majority wrote in a 6-3 opinion. “We hold today that the Act allows the Secretary to ‘waive or modify’ existing statutory or regulatory provisions applicable to financial assistance programs under the Education Act, not to rewrite that statute from the ground up.”

President Biden Hosts Hanukkah Holiday Reception At The White House

Biden Announces Cancellation Of Another $4 Billion In Student Loans

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Just weeks before the 2024 election, President Joe Biden has announced his administration will be canceling another $4.5 billion in student debt.
Biden made the <a href="https://www.whitehouse.gov/briefing-room/statements-releases/2024/10/17/statement-from-president-joe-biden-on-student-debt-cancellation-for-over-1-million-public-service-workers-under-the-biden-harris-administration/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">announcement</a> on Thursday, saying the newly canceled debt was for more than 60,000 public service workers. Biden noted that the latest round of debt forgiveness brings the total number of Americans who have had their student debt canceled under this administration to more than 1 million.
“Public service workers – teachers, nurses, firefighters, and more – are the bedrocks of our communities and our country,” Biden said. “They dedicate their careers to giving back to others, and were given the promise of student debt forgiveness after 10 years of public service and 10 years of payments under the Public Service Loan Forgiveness program. But for too long, the government failed to live up to its commitments, and only 7,000 people had ever received forgiveness under Public Service Loan Forgiveness before Vice President Harris and I took office.”
The announcement comes as Vice President Kamala Harris appears to be struggling in the polls in the weeks before the election, and the day after her <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/ben-shapiro-breaks-down-kamala-harris-fox-news-interview-full-scale-disaster" target="_blank" rel="noopener">disastrous interview</a> with Fox News&#8217; Bret Baier.
<a href="https://www.amiracist.com/" target="_blank" rel="noopener" data-saferedirecturl="https://www.google.com/url?q=https://www.amiracist.com/&amp;source=gmail&amp;ust=1729077615157000&amp;usg=AOvVaw17Kprl74oE9DYOLREdiBPU">MATT WALSH’S ‘AM I RACIST?’ COMING TO DAILYWIRE+ OCT. 28</a>
Biden’s student loan forgiveness has not fared well in the courts, with the Supreme Court in August rejecting the administration’s “request to get rid of an injunction from an appeals court that put a hold on the administration’s SAVE plan, which would exempt student loan borrowers’ income from their repayment obligation,” The Daily Wire <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/scotus-rejects-biden-harris-again-on-student-loan-cancellation" target="_blank" rel="noopener">reported</a> at the time.
The Supreme Court had previously struck down Biden’s student loan forgiveness program in 2023, but Biden <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/biden-ignores-supreme-court-cancels-another-74000-student-loans" target="_blank" rel="noopener">ignored that ruling</a>.
Biden previously announced in April that he was forgiving student loan debt for more than 30 million borrowers – after poll numbers showed he was doing poorly with young voters, The Daily Wire <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/biden-again-tries-to-win-over-young-voters-with-new-student-loan-bailout" target="_blank" rel="noopener">reported</a>.
Of course, loan “forgiveness,” doesn’t just erase the loans, it passes them on to taxpayers who are then forced to foot the bill for people who went to college, many of whom are gainfully employed as doctors and lawyers. The Daily Wire’s Matt Walsh previously <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/walsh-six-reasons-why-student-loan-forgiveness-matt-walsh" target="_blank" rel="noopener">explained</a> why shifting the debt burden was a “financially disastrous and morally abominable idea.”
“It is extraordinarily unjust to the working class. Many blue collar people are living on lower wages because they couldn’t afford to go to college. They chose the responsible route, stayed within their means, avoided buying something they couldn’t pay for, and accepted a humbler lifestyle as a result,” Walsh wrote. “…It turns out they could have just gone to college, taken out the loan, and never paid it back. Student loan forgiveness rewards irresponsibility and punishes responsibility.”
Further, Walsh explained, the cancelation hurts those who actually did pay back their loans and completely upends the legal contracts these students signed.
“If you have student debt, you agreed to it. You signed on the dotted line. You made a legal arrangement,” Walsh wrote. “It does not make moral or logical sense for a third party to enter the picture and say, ‘You don’t have to fulfill your obligations and keep your promises.’”

President Biden

Biden Announces $4.5 Billion Student Debt Cancellation Just Weeks Before Election

2024 Election

Elections

I am one of countless women who are fighting a battle that was never meant to be ours alone. My journey began at the tender age of 17 when I brought my first child into this world without the safety net of family support. Today, I am the mother of three beautiful children, who are my heart and soul. I worked tirelessly in my twenties, juggling three jobs while attending night school to earn a bachelor’s degree. This pursuit for a better life left me with $60,000 in student debt — a shadow that looms large over my future.
Today, I gross $6,000 a month, working 15-20 hours of overtime each week. It’s an income I once idolized and aspired to during my studies, believing it was the key to making a name for myself. Yet, the harsh reality is that after taxes, $2,400 in rent, $800 in health insurance, $700 in childcare for my toddler, $400 in utilities, $250 in car insurance, and another $400 in legal fees each month — stemming from a bitter custody battle with my ex-husband — I find myself $1,900 in the red every month. I receive $400 in child support, but it barely scratches the surface of what’s needed.
I share these detailed financial numbers to underscore the stark reality that we are all confronting in this country. This isn&#8217;t just my struggle — it&#8217;s the shared plight of countless Americans burdened by an unforgiving economic system.
My car payment is an additional burden, an expensive necessity because financing a vehicle was cheaper than paying any amount in full for something I would own. I am using old food stamp money I had saved up for food when I lost my job last year, but that is dwindling and will run out in a month or so. Soon, I will have no money for food.
In the midst of these struggles, I watch in despair as politicians spend more time in political arenas fighting amongst themselves, rather than putting the needs of Americans like me at the forefront. I feel forgotten, as if my reality is not important to those who profit from the political use of the hurt that people like me endure.
I find myself ensnared in a relentless cycle, each day feeling like I am shackled in a form of modern-day slavery — laboring endlessly, knowing deep down that no matter how fiercely I fight, breaking free seems impossible. It&#8217;s as if my very essence is owned, my labor dictated, my freedom stolen by an unyielding system. This economy, this broken system, holds me captive, squeezing every ounce of strength from my soul as I desperately struggle to break free from the chains of my invisible master.
<h4><a href="https://www.amiracist.com/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Am I Racist? Is In Theaters NOW — Get Your Tickets Here!</a></h4>
I write this not only as a call for change, but out of personal desperation. I hope that by voicing my struggles, I can somehow make sense of the daily battles I face, and in doing so, find a way to make them more bearable. Each word is a plea, a testament to the resilience I must muster every day, yearning for a glimmer of hope amidst the overwhelming darkness.
I am exhausted — mentally, physically, and emotionally. It feels as though all my energy is spent on mere survival and my relationship with my children suffers because of it. My health is deteriorating, and I can’t afford the copay to seek help. I make too much to qualify for state assistance, but not enough to survive.
In desperation, I&#8217;ve resorted to taking out small credit cards with excruciating interest rates, just to afford basic necessities. Yet, even these lifelines slip from my grasp as I let payments lapse, unable to keep up with the relentless financial demands. Each month, I sink deeper into a quicksand of debt, watching helplessly as it pulls me further under.
Every day, I send out numerous job applications, hoping to break through the algorithmic barriers that online hiring processes have erected. In a desperate bid to gain an edge, I pay for subscriptions to job board websites, yet the opportunities seem scarce in a sea where everyone is striving for the same lifeline. It&#8217;s a bitter pill to swallow knowing my teenage son has more in his savings than I do, and I wrestle with the urge to borrow from him just to afford basic necessities like laundry detergent.
I see women my age turning to platforms like OnlyFans, tempted by the possibility of financial relief. I hold onto my faith, my dignity, and my love for my children as a shield against that reality. Yet, the temptation lurks as bills pile up and my credit score plummets. Emails from creditors with &#8220;Payment Declined&#8221; messages haunt my inbox. My bank account teeters at $3, and payday is a mere cycle of temporary relief before the next wave of bills crashes in.
Each month, I face the agonizing decision of which bills to pay and which to defer, forced to prioritize their importance to my family&#8217;s immediate well-being. This constant juggling act leaves me perpetually behind, always scrambling to catch up, yet never quite able to break free. It&#8217;s a relentless cycle that chips away at my resolve, leaving me feeling defeated and powerless.
I ask you: How can it be that earning $60,000 to $70,000 a year leaves me scrapping for survival? Why are hardworking people like me stuck in a system that seems to reward the few at the expense of the many?
Each day, the dream of owning my own home slips further away. With every missed payment, my credit score plummets, and any chance of building savings evaporates. The soaring prices of homes stretch far beyond my reach, transforming the American Dream into a distant mirage that taunts me from the horizon.
My heart aches as I watch illegal immigrants walk into this country and receive more support than I do. I cry in solitude, locked in my bathroom, journaling and praying for change. This is not just my story, but the story of many women in America who are slowly being crushed under the weight of an unyielding system.
I am choosing to vote for Donald Trump because I yearn for a life where my hard work truly counts, where I can live on my own terms without depending on government handouts just to survive in a system that those in power have broken. I implore those who share my struggles to make the same choice, recognizing that more government band-aids will only lead to restricted freedoms and make it increasingly difficult to get ahead. We need to reclaim our autonomy and ensure our labor reaps the rewards it deserves.
I&#8217;m not seeking handouts or &#8220;free government money&#8221; — I&#8217;m demanding real, substantial change. I vote conservative because I believe in a future where dedication and determination pave the way to personal success and dignity. We need policies that uplift working mothers, honor our contributions, and empower us to provide for our children without sacrificing our health and well-being.
This is a plea for action, for reform, and for a future where we are not punished for striving for better. America, the land of opportunity, must become a reality, not just a dream. Change is not a luxury; it is a necessity for mothers, for families, and for Americans like me.
* * *
Kirsten White is a hardworking mother of three who lives in Idaho.
The views expressed in this piece are those of the author and do not necessarily represent those of The Daily Wire.

Cropped shot of mother carrying a shopping cart, doing grocery shopping in supermarket

I’m A Single Mom. Here’s Why I Am Not Surviving Under The Biden-Harris Economy.

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A federal appeals court on Thursday temporarily shut down President Joe Biden’s nearly half-trillion dollar plan to cancel or lower student debt by transferring it to taxpayers.
The Eighth Circuit Court of Appeals on Thursday <a href="https://storage.courtlistener.com/recap/gov.uscourts.ca8.109302/gov.uscourts.ca8.109302.805045608.0.pdf" target="_blank" rel="noopener">paused</a> Biden&#8217;s Saving on a Valuable Education (SAVE) Plan in response to a petition from a group of red states led by Missouri Attorney General Andrew Bailey. The petitioners <a href="https://storage.courtlistener.com/recap/gov.uscourts.ca8.109302/gov.uscourts.ca8.109302.805041888.0.pdf">asked</a> the court to &#8220;enter an immediate administrative stay of Defendants’ actions to prevent millions of dollars in irreparable harm.&#8221;
&#8220;Just as this Court did last time Defendants tried to mass cancel nearly $500 billion in student loan debt,&#8221; the petition reads.
The states sued Biden over the SAVE Plan, which Bailey said would cost taxpayers $475 billion by transferring debt taken out by wealthy, elite college graduates to the working class.
The SAVE plan would lower student loan payments by up to 50% and forgive any unpaid balance after a certain number of years. 
In a separate lawsuit, a lower court in Kansas previously granted an injunction blocking some of the plan, and the Biden administration appealed to the 10th Circuit Court of Appeals, which set it aside. That case has since been appealed to the Supreme Court.
A Missouri court also blocked part of Biden’s plan, involving outright student loan forgiveness,  and the state appealed to the Eighth Circuit. The Eighth Circuit’s injunction appears to block implementation of the rule in its entirety during litigation, a sign that the court views Missouri’s case as strong.
By overreaching and ignoring Congress&#8217; authority over the federal purse, the Biden administration may have actually rolled back even more longstanding student loan forgiveness programs.
&#8220;Defendants chose to streamline previous plans under one &#8216;umbrella&#8217; regulation,&#8221; the appeal reads. &#8220;Defendants are thus on the horns of a dilemma: they must either present their current actions as a new plan that is unlawful because it did not go through notice and comment, or they must acknowledge that they are forgiving loans under regulatory provisions that the district court preliminarily enjoined.&#8221;
Missouri’s AG was joined by counterparts in Arkansas, Florida, North Dakota, and Ohio.
Biden has boasted that he forgave student debt despite the courts trying to stop him.
In recent days, the Department of Education sent the latest of multiple <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/biden-to-send-email-reminding-150k-student-loan-borrowers-he-got-them-off-the-hook" target="_blank" rel="noopener">emails to borrowers</a> that read like taxpayer-funded campaign messages, giving Biden credit for forgiving the loans while blaming Republicans for objecting. The injunction will deal a blow to efforts to use the program to curry votes prior to the election.
In June 2023, the Supreme Court struck down another of Biden’s student loan forgiveness efforts. Biden had sought to use a post-9/11 bill that gave the president powers to &#8220;waive or modify any statutory or regulatory provision applicable to the student financial assistance programs under title IV of the [Education Act] as the Secretary deems necessary in connection with a war or other military operation or national emergency.” The court said this law was not relevant to the present circumstance.
Nevertheless, Biden <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/biden-ignores-supreme-court-cancels-another-74000-student-loans" target="_blank" rel="noopener">pushed more student debt forgiveness</a> in January 2024.

Student Loan Borrowers Gather To Tell President Biden To Cancel Student Debt

Federal Court Blocks Biden Student Loan Bonanza

Missouri

A graduate of St. Cloud State University is suing her alma mater after learning that she was charged a mandatory fee for an activist group that pushes liberal political speech.
Tayah Lackie filed <a href="https://libertyjusticecenter.org/wp-content/uploads/Complaint-ECF-1-5-9-24.pdf" target="_blank" rel="noopener">a federal lawsuit</a> with the help of the Liberty Justice Center and the Upper Midwest Law Center, The College Fix <a href="https://www.thecollegefix.com/college-grad-sues-to-stop-mandatory-student-fee-that-supports-liberal-activist-group/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">reported</a>. The lawsuit argues that this mandatory fee violates Lackie’s First Amendment rights to free speech.
The lawsuit alleges that the Minnesota State Colleges and Universities, of which St. Cloud State is a part, “mandates that every student who attends a school in that system be a member of, and pay union dues to, a group called Students United – a private corporation created for the purpose of engaging in political speech, which advocates for and takes positions on controversial policies and legislation, and which purports to speak on all students’ behalf.”
The lawsuit notes that Students United has “aggressively advocated for the abolition of student debt – including through a website called “Fck Student Debt” and a Twitter/X account, @FckStudentDebt.”
Because of the mandatory fee, every student who attends a school in the Minnesota State University system “is forced to associate with and subsidize Students United and its speech – even if the student disagrees with it.”
Lackie noted that she only learned about the fee after she graduated when she was looking at her “account statement” and saw the deducted fee. Lackie, who “paid [her] own way without taking on debt,” is opposed to abolishing student debt and other policies for which Students United has advocated.
Jacob Huebert, president of the Liberty Justice Center, told the Fix that “a victory in this case would establish that state colleges and universities cannot force students to pay fees to an activist group just to be allowed to attend.”
The current fee is just “80 cents per credit,” the lawsuit says, which amounts to $9.60 for an undergraduate degree, which requires 120 credits.
Lackie says she received only minimal information about the charge.
The lawsuit also revealed that 76% of Student United’s funding comes from the mandatory fees charged to students. The lawsuit says students “are not informed of any right they have not to associate with Students United” and are not “given any opportunity to waive any right not to associate with Students United.”
Minnesota law requires colleges and universities in its system to recognize a statewide student association and draw fees for the organization.

Freedom of Speech

College Graduate Sues After Learning Mandatory Tuition Fee Went To Liberal Student Activist Group

Minnesota

U.S.

A staffer for a Democratic <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/topic/congress" target="_blank" rel="noopener">congresswoman</a> crowed on social media on Thursday about getting his student loans forgiven by the Biden administration, saying &#8220;elections matter,&#8221; but it turns out his boss previously opposed cancelling student loans.
Representative Marcy Kaptur&#8217;s (D-OH) communications director Ben Kamens <a href="https://x.com/BeeKamens/status/1803490997457789263" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">posted</a> a photo of the letter informing him that his student debt had been forgiven.
&#8220;Just got a call to let me know my student debt has been canceled,&#8221; Kamens wrote.
&#8220;This is why elections matter. Thanks @JoeBiden,&#8221; he added.
The letter showed a total of $8,250 in student loans from 2010 were forgiven Kamens.
&#8220;Congratulations! The Biden-Harris Administration has forgiven your federal student loan(s),&#8221; read the letter from Nelnet, the country&#8217;s largest servicer of student loans.
Back in 2022, Kaptur, an Ohio Democrat, <a href="https://sanduskyregister.com/news/404779/kaptur-criticizes-student-loan-debt-relief/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">criticized</a> the Biden administration&#8217;s plan to erase billions of dollars in student loan debt.
“What about the people who paid off their loans?” Kaptur said. “What about the people who didn’t rack up that level of debt? What about people who put college on hold? What about the systemic problems we have in the student loan program, where you walk into an admissions office at a college and they give you a credit card, and you get the money, and you can spend the money on a car or a vacation or whatever, and then the student doesn’t graduate. There’s a lot of issues.”
Kaptur also questioned whether the president has the legal authority to push forward with the massive loan forgiveness plan, saying President Biden likely &#8220;overreached his authority.&#8221;
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“There was no consultation with Congress,&#8221; she said. &#8220;The last time I checked the Constitution, you can’t impact the bottom line of the federal treasury without some bill moving through Congress. I think the president probably overreached his authority on this one. My expectation is it will go to the courts. I’m not sure how that will happen.”
However, Kaptur later <a href="https://nypost.com/2024/06/20/us-news/aide-to-rep-marcy-kaptur-boasts-of-receiving-biden-student-loan-bailout-which-his-boss-opposed/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">voted</a> twice against House measures criticizing the administration&#8217;s student loan cancellation.
Meanwhile, the criticism online was swift on Thursday.
One X user <a href="https://x.com/Mar__G_3/status/1803557104847859802" target="_blank" rel="noopener">noted</a> that Kamens makes over $90,000 a year, <a href="https://www.legistorm.com/person/Benjamin_A_Kamens/361249.html" target="_blank" rel="noopener">according</a> to Legistorm, but still apparently expected taxpayers to pay his debt.
Others pointed out that Kamens had previously posted about holding Philadelphia Eagles season tickets and that the address on his loan forgiveness letter was for a house valued at over half a million dollars.
&#8220;You are jubilant at having foisted your student debt on other taxpayers. Meanwhile, a cursory spin through your profile in just recent times show multiple examples of extraneous expenditures that could have gone toward your years long debt. Nice,&#8221; one X user <a href="https://x.com/LisasFineLines/status/1803519366455296227" target="_blank" rel="noopener">wrote</a>.
Kamens switched his X account to private mode after his post garnered attention.
Last summer, the Supreme Court <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/supreme-court-delivers-defeat-to-biden-admin-on-student-loan-forgiveness">struck down</a> Biden’s $430 billion student debt relief policy that would have forgiven the student debt of about 40 million people. The high court ruled 6-3 that the HEROES Act of 2003 does not give Biden the authority to cancel billions in student loan debt.
Just weeks later, however, Biden announced the Education Department’s Saving on a Valuable Education (SAVE) Plan, which is <a href="https://nypost.com/2023/07/17/bidens-new-student-loan-forgiveness-to-cost-475-billion/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">expected</a> to cost taxpayers about $475 billion over the next decade.

Piggy bank with Debt Forgiveness graduation cap on cash

Dem Hill Staffer Celebrates Getting Biden Student Loan Cancellation, But His Boss Opposed It

Congress

Democrat

Generation Z&#8217;s efforts to be financially independent are slowed by their mounting personal debt, a problem that appears only to be getting worse for the youngest adults.
Gen Z young adults in their early to mid-20s, most of whom have just entered the workforce or are trying to do so, are plagued by stubbornly low wages and record inflation over the past few years, pushing them into debt, The Wall Street Journal <a href="https://www.wsj.com/personal-finance/gen-z-credit-card-debt-inflation-2f2f927e" target="_blank" rel="noopener">reported</a>. Those born between 1997 and 2012 are generally considered to be part of Generation Z.
Many turn to credit cards just to cover the basics like food and rent.
For young adults 22 to 24, the average credit card balance was $2,834 in the last quarter of 2023, according to credit-reporting agency TransUnion. Back in 2013, the average balance for this group was only $2,248, adjusted for inflation.
Rent is likely the main driver of young people&#8217;s climbing debt. It is now <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/its-now-often-cheaper-to-rent-than-buy-property#">cheaper</a> to rent than to buy property.
Thanks to rising housing prices and mortgage rates, renting a two-bedroom residence is cheaper than buying that property for about 89% of Americans, <a href="https://web.archive.org/web/20231128140139/https://www.economist.com/graphic-detail/2023/11/28/is-it-cheaper-to-rent-or-buy-property" target="_blank" rel="noopener">according</a> to a November analysis by The Economist.
In March, the median rent in the U.S. was $1,987, up nearly 22% compared to the past four years, <a href="https://www.rent.com/research/average-rent-price-report/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">according</a> to Rent, an online rental marketplace that targets young adults.
Meanwhile, wages have not increased nearly that much.
Last year, the median annual wage for recent college graduates was $60,000, not much higher than $58,858 in 2020, <a href="https://www.wsj.com/personal-finance/gen-z-credit-card-debt-inflation-2f2f927e" target="_blank" rel="noopener">according</a> to Federal Reserve of New York data.
Meanwhile, after the pandemic, credit card companies made it easier for people to get credit cards. This led to more Gen Z young adults opening accounts — they were more likely to have at least one credit card compared with millennials a decade ago, according to data from TransUnion.
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During the pandemic, many people&#8217;s credit scores, including Gen Z&#8217;s, rose as stimulus checks hit bank accounts and many places to spend money remained temporarily shuttered. However, rising interest rates have driven down both Gen Z&#8217;s and millennials&#8217; credit scores since the pandemic.
Student debt is another huge debt driver among today&#8217;s young adults. Many leftist loan holders demand taxpayers foot the bill for their loan forgiveness. At the same time, critics blame former students for taking on an unreasonable amount of debt at 18, even though, in many cases, their parents assured them that it was a good investment and did not predict the soaring inflation of the last few years.
This confluence of financial stressors is causing young people to delay marriage, having children, and homeownership until they can support themselves, not to mention dependents.

Financial stress

Gen Z Watching Their Debt Climb Amid Soaring Rent, Food Prices

Debt Forgiveness

Generation Z

President Joe Biden, facing poor polling numbers for a Democratic candidate with young voters, announced another student loan bailout program this week ahead of the 2024 presidential election.
His new plan comes after the U.S. Supreme Court blocked his attempt to this last year because it was illegal.
Biden&#8217;s new plan would take taxpayer money to wipe out the student loan debt of over 30 million borrowers, the White House <a href="https://www.whitehouse.gov/briefing-room/statements-releases/2024/04/08/fact-sheet-president-biden-announces-new-plans-that-would-provide-relief-to-borrowers-disproportionately-burdened-by-student-loan-debt/">said</a>. The administration said that the actions were specifically designed to provide relief to black and Latino borrowers who attended community college and who are financially vulnerable because they took out debt but never had the chance to complete their degree.
The plan would provide relief to borrowers who owe more than they did at the start of repayment; borrowers who are otherwise eligible for loan forgiveness, but have not yet applied; borrowers who first entered repayment many years ago; borrowers who enrolled in low-financial-value programs; and borrowers experiencing hardship paying back their loans.
&#8220;Today, too many Americans, especially young people, are saddled with unsustainable debts in exchange for a college degree,&#8221; Biden said from an event in Wisconsin. &#8220;The ability for working and middle class folks to repay their student loans has become so burdensome that a lot can&#8217;t repay it for even decades after being in school.&#8221;
&#8220;Even when they work hard and pay their student loans, their debt increases, not diminishes,&#8221; he said. &#8220;Too many people feel the strain and stress wondering if they can get married, have their first child, start a family because even if they get by, they still have this crushing, crushing debt, and it&#8217;s not just a drag on them.&#8221;
Biden claimed that people couldn&#8217;t buy homes because they had to repay their student loans when most people can&#8217;t afford homes because of high interests that were sparked by the inflation that his American Rescue Plan caused.
&#8220;Tens of millions of people&#8217;s debt was literally about to get canceled, but then some of my Republican friends and elected officials and special interests sued us and the Supreme Court blocked us, but that didn&#8217;t&#8211;well, that didn&#8217;t stop us,&#8221; he said. &#8220;No, I mean it sincerely. We continue to find alternative paths to reduce student debt payment that are not challenging.&#8221;
WATCH:
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President Biden Speaks In Las Vegas On Lowering Costs For Americans

Biden Again Tries To Win Over Young Voters With New Student Loan Bailout

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