There is bipartisan agreement that President Joe Biden’s student-debt relief plan is less than desirable, but that hasn’t stopped Democrat candidate, Kirsten Engel from offering her full-throated support for it.
Some critics say that is because Engel is ultimately a beneficiary of it.
Across Arizona, students in community colleges and the three state universities have been hit by skyrocketing tuition, covering the costs of highly paid administrators and select faculty like Engel, a University of Arizona Law professor.
Nearly 60 percent of University of Arizona law school grads leave with an average of $68,211 in student debt, and only 64.8 percent of those grads had full-time, long-term jobs within 10 months of graduation, according to the latest available statistics.
So, while the average University of Arizona law school student, is acquiring the debt that Engel wants the taxpayers to pick up, her salary grew to $184,275 this year, up from $179,780, the previous year.
“From January to August, Engel was being paid 80 percent of her $184,275 salary despite teaching only two courses in the spring 2022 semester and a section pertaining to a law journal.”
The conservative Heritage Foundation has called the plan “an unfair handout to Big Education, which will gladly keep raising tuition, and a politically favorable constituency of relatively wealthy, more highly educated voters.”
The Foundation says that history shows that “federal subsidies have enabled colleges to raise prices with abandon. Since the 1991-92 academic year, total federal aid (including student loans and grants) increased 295%. In response, colleges and universities more than doubled their tuition and fees in real terms.”
President Biden has said his plan will “build wealth,” but critics say that too many borrowers who have incomes well above the median household income in America will qualify for the plan and don’t need the help.
“Many working-class and people of color took out tens of thousands in loans for their opportunity to attain the American dream,” said Rep. Raul Grijalva said in a press release. “We should not penalize them, hold them back and further widen the wealth gap because of their success.”
“As a small business owner, father of four future college students, and person of color, President Biden’s plan does not build wealth for me or my kids, in fact it guarantees that parents like me will have a harder time sending our kids to school without acquiring more debt. And it will make my kids’ schooling more expensive. There is nothing fair or equitable about this,” said southern Arizona resident Sergio Arellano.
“As a small business owner, father of four future college students, and person of color, President Biden’s plan does not build wealth for me or my kids, in fact it guarantees that parents like me will have a harder time sending our kids to school without acquiring more debt. And it will make my kids’ schooling more expensive. There is nothing fair or equitable about this,” said southern Arizona resident Sergio Arellano.
“It is easy for someone like Professor Engel to support this scheme because it benefits her and her crowd, but has she given any thought to what it does for those of us, who have kids who might want to be a law professor one day, and the costs will be too high?“ asked Arellano.
Engel’s Republican opponent, Juan Ciscomani, said in a tweet: “I started out flipping burgers, taking out trash and working maintenance jobs to pay for school and have a shot at the American Dream. The policies out of DC are making this harder and harder for everyday Arizonans.”
WATCH: I started out flipping burgers, taking out trash and working maintenance jobs to pay for school and have a shot at the American Dream. The policies out of DC are making this harder and harder for everyday Arizonans.
#AZ06 1/ pic.twitter.com/YRehKOMZrO— Juan Ciscomani (@JuanCiscomani) August 29, 2022
While Ciscomani has not issued an official policy statement, he has said on the campaign trail that like Arellano, he sees the plan as unfair.
President Biden’s debt transfer is expected to cost at least $300 billion, with about 70% of the forgiveness going to the top 60% of households by income distribution, according to Penn Wharton.
“Highly-paid liberal professor Kirsten Engel supports sticking working-class Southern Arizonans with the bill for her pricey paycheck. No wonder Engel enthusiastically endorsed Biden’s scheme transferring debt from white-collar law school grads to blue-collar workers. Kirsten Engel is part of the problem,” said RNC spokesperson Ben Petersen.
“In addition to the fact that Biden‘s actions are likely unconstitutional and illegal, they are really nothing more than a cynical attempt to flat out purchase support from one group of voters at the expense of much of the rest of the country,“ said former Arizona State legislator Steve Montenegro, who also served on the Board of Trustees for Arizona Christian University.