OPINION:
The Democratic Party decided long ago that it wants to champion big government as the solution to societal ailments. From Franklin Roosevelt’s New Deal and Lyndon Johnson’s Great Society to President Biden’s Green New Deal, Democratic commanders in chief see every challenge facing the country as a nail that the federal bureaucracy should hammer.
For years, militant progressives have blamed student loan servicers, for-profit schools, and virtually anyone else they can think of other than themselves for the failures of postsecondary education and the system they created. Taxpayers and borrowers have seen enough failures from this approach to know better, and the public is no longer willing to entertain Democrats’ lack of personal accountability.
The administration in charge holds the hammer, and when it misses, it has no one to blame, and the available evidence clearly suggests that the political party of, by, and for unfettered bureaucracy is hopelessly incompetent. Indeed, the way Secretary Miguel Cardona’s Department of Education treats schools, servicers, and the tens of millions of borrowers with student debt perfectly illustrates the ruinous consequences of putting Democrats in charge.
Mr. Biden and his subordinates extended the pandemic-era student loan repayment freeze half a dozen times since taking office. In every one of those instances, the technocrats in Washington pledged that it was the final extension.
Families with federal student loans panicked over how to prepare properly for renewing their monthly obligations because they were kept in the dark by vacillating decision-makers in Washington. Once it became clear that the Education Department’s attempts to do its job were embarrassingly inadequate, Mr. Biden issued another extension at the eleventh hour and notified Congress, borrowers and servicers by press release.
It would be one thing if the effects of the Democrats’ policies were limited to creating needless anxiety and confusion, but the consequences reached much further. With the promise of an imminent end to the payment moratorium, federally contracted student loan servicers hired hundreds of new staff. They spent countless dollars updating systems and preparing for the monumental task of returning 40 million borrowers to repayment, only for Democrats to change their minds.
The results are workers out of jobs, borrowers unable to get the help they need, and hardworking taxpayers on the hook for another $5 billion every month. This ineptitude continues.
Real people suffer from the failures of the Democrats’ “solutions.”
Other examples of the Democratic Party’s student loan mismanagement abound. Illegal waiver programs and mass loan write-offs are announced without any notice or guidance on how they will work. While the administration boasts these programs pass constitutional muster, they quietly amend their website outlining the program requirements in an effort to avoid lawsuits and legal challenges.
Moreover, these unaccountable bureaucrats and career politicians claim their reckless policies are inexpensive, yet independent auditors and no-partisan experts all but accuse the Department of Education of cooking the books.
Any private business would have its executives run out of town for operating what is one of the largest consumer banks in the United States like a game of Monopoly. Yet this administration believes its track record of spending over half a trillion dollars to somehow make the problems of college access and affordability worse is worthy of another four years in office.
It is clear the Department of Education’s tool of choice to “solve” problems is no longer a hammer but a wrecking ball. It is time to put a new construction crew in charge to restore competent management and respect for the rule of law.
• Rep. Virginia Foxx represents North Carolina’s 5th Congressional District and is the chairwoman of the Committee on Education and the Workforce.
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