Decades ago, college debt was viewed as hand up for those who couldn’t afford to pay for higher education. It was manageable. Students could even work their way through college. Those were the days. Today, college debt is crushing a generation. The average college student will owe $30,000 in student loans. Some will owe much more than that.  Part of Joe Biden’s presidential plan was to help students with college debt. Although college student  Sabrina Abalos, 19, isn’t in debt right now, she thinks a policy to relive college debt could help her in the future.

“Furthering education is pretty darn expensive and puts a lot of pressure on students like myself that pay tuition ourselves,” said Abalos. “As a current theatre major with small debt who intends on furthering into medicine, this could change a lot of my plans.”

According to a recent article in Forbes magazine, there are three aspects to Biden’s plan.

One is focused on student loan cancellation due to Covid-19, Biden stated that he wanted to help students who have taken loans and who have been affected financially by the current pandemic. At first Biden want to give about $10,000 to these students, but thanks to progressives in Congress it has been altered, now it is 50,000. If this plan comes to pass, the US Department of Education has estimated a that about 36 million students will have their student debt completely cleared.

South Broward High School class of 2020 Jared Bradwell seemed very happy about the news.

“Covid has caused more than a few problems for me financially, as I’m sure it has with everyone,” said Bradwell. ” If college debt is suspended for me then I’d be able to save money for other things, it would really help.” said Bradwell

Abalos agrees saying “The pandemic has greatly affected the financial situations of so many people in the country, so eventually the government was gonna have to do something.”

A second part of the proposal is focused on how student loan forgiveness will affect public servants. Back in 2007 there was a plan similar to the one being presented by Biden now where student loan borrowers who worked full time will be able to cancel their debts. The problem with this was that 98% were rejected of those who tried to qualify for this plan. The point of the current plan Biden is proposing is that he wishes to make this program more accessible for others

“I think the government or people in power are finally realizing how expensive college education is and how much of a lifetime struggle it is to pay it back” is what Abalos said regarding those with low-income.

The third, and perhaps most controversial, aspect is on how to implement student loan forgiveness for low-income borrowers. While there is not really an exact cutoff for people who have low-income, some of Biden’s proposals make it so $125,000 of annual income is the cutoff. The part of student loan forgiveness mixes with Biden’s plan to have targeted student loan forgiveness to student loan borrowers.

That type of program could really help a student like South Broward High School senior Sophie A. Stella. She plans to attend college and with this news has given her a reason to smile.

“I worry about the money even though I know I shouldn’t. Everyone has loans or debts to pay, I just hope this will be able to help me when I finally attend university,” said Stella. “With college being as expensive as it is, maybe it was finally time for some relief.”