Chicago-area students, debtors react to President Biden’s $10,000 loan forgiveness plan

Valentino Wilson saw his debt pile up when he got a bachelor’s and master’s degrees in engineering. His parents had saved up for college, but then his mom, a teacher, became chronically ill. The money went toward ballooning medical bills.

Wilson, of Bartlett, pays $70,000 in loans under his name and another $160,000 under his father’s name. The 25-year-old said it could take up to 30 years to pay off his student loans.

Across Chicago on Wednesday, borrowers like Wilson reacted to the news that President Joe Biden planned to forgive between $10,000 and $20,000 in student debt relief.

“My loan is accruing $10,000 in debt each year, so it really doesn’t do that much for me,” said Wilson, a biomedical engineering doctorate at the University of Illinois at Chicago, from outside the campus student center on Wednesday.

Wilson said he thinks Biden’s plan is good, but not enough. Students are pushed hard toward college with little information about how debt could affect them, he said. The money he’s putting toward paying for his degrees could’ve been a mortgage, he said.

“I’m definitely afraid of what that financial burden is going to do for my other goals in life, outside of school and starting a career, like starting a family,” Wilson said.

Arik Mendelevitz, 29, grew up in Humboldt Park and Northbrook and graduated in 2015 from Kalamazoo College in Michigan as a Pell Grant recipient with a major in philosophy and minors in theater and history. He walked out the door with around $35,000 in debt. Seven years later, he still owes approximately $27,400.

Mendelevitz has lived in the same apartment in Uptown since October 2015; thankfully, he said, his rent hasn’t increased too much. He’s looking into buying a one-bedroom condo, however, and he can’t do that as long as he’s continuing to pay off his loans.

“Even with this and the debt relief, I’m still gonna owe $7,000. I’ll have to pay that over several years,” he said. “So, it’s still making that jump to the next stage in my life difficult. Because, you know, I wanted to learn, I wanted to go to college.”

Mendelevitz, who said he has friends with up to $70,000 in college debt, said he thinks the solution is to forgive all student debt.

“If you look at countries that do that, they’re not behind us. Germany does not have a flailing economy — they have free college,” he said. “And sending people to college and making that affordable — it doesn’t just help that person do better and make themselves more money, it gives us a smarter, more well rounded and more well educated country to live in.”

In Hoffman Estates, Geoffrey Wessel said the $10,000 forgiveness is “nice,” but “still a drop in the bucket for most.” Wessel, who is almost 50, attended Ball State University from 1991 to 1996.

He had to take out loans during his time in college and left with approximately $25,000 in debt.

“I then spent a lot of time getting forbearances and deferments because I simply could not pay them, especially after my daughter was born because she turned out to be special needs and on the spectrum,” he said.

Wessel had to start paying back his loans once he reached the limit on deferments and forbearances.

Getting $10,000 forgiven will likely completely erase debt for some people, but not for most, he said. For example, he would still have to pay back $10,500.

Considering that student debt affects marginalized groups such as people of color more than it affects people like him, he said, “the government could have done a lot more.”

As the UIC campus buzzed with students on the semester’s third day of classes, Caison Crawford had just gotten out of a business calculus lecture.

“$10,000 is cool. It’s a start for sure,” the 20-year-old studying marketing and advertising said. The money will help many fellow students, but college educations still need to be more affordable, he added.

The third-year student and Chicago native took out loans to pay for his housing. His mom, a doctor working in virus prevention, is still paying off her student loans. It’s hard to look forward to a career while debt looms, he said.

“We still want more. We still feel that we deserve more,” Crawford said.

As she walked on UIC’s campus, sophomore Katrina Roberts said the five-figure forgiveness Biden planned was substantial, but paled in comparison to the debt many students face.

“It’s like putting a dent in a car. It’s not a lot, but it helps,” the 19-year-old psychology student said.

She believes education is a right and wants to see loan forgiveness on a larger scale, targeted toward people making less money or who are the first people in their family to go to college. A degree is essential to becoming a successful, helpful therapist, Roberts said. She expects to rack up $250,000 to $350,000 in debt when she goes to medical school.

“People, regardless of whether or not they have student debt or have paid it off, should be grateful to know that the professionals of the future will not be penalized for getting the necessary education to become professionals to help society,” said Roberts, of Englewood.

Jennifer García sat on a ledge eating pizza as students passed. She hadn’t yet heard about Biden’s student debt plan. Debt could pile up when she gets a master’s degree in education, she said. García hopes to become a fourth grade math teacher.

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The price to learn sometimes gets in the way of learning, she said. One friend with debt can’t afford books and has had to hunt for scholarships.

Tuition should be cheaper, like it is at community colleges, the 18-year-old from Little Village added.

“You cannot focus on your education,” García said, “when you’re focusing on the financial part.”

jsheridan@chicagotribune.com

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