The Sconi

Former U.S. Secretary of State Mike Pompeo is warning that President Joe Biden’s student loan forgiveness plan stands to make the problem of rising tuition costs an even greater issue for future generations.

"Joe Biden isn't forgiving student loan debt, he's subsidizing college tuition,” Pompeo recently tweeted. “This one-time giveaway is only going to raise tuition for future generations."

In addition to Pompeo, several experts told FOX Business that Biden's plan may well cause a rise in college tuition prices and actually add to the inflation crisis.

"Students will likely feel liberated to borrow more money on the assumption of future loan forgiveness, and universities will take advantage of the additional borrowing by raising tuition," Brian Riedl, a senior fellow in budget, tax and economic policy at the Manhattan Institute, told Fox Business. "This is pretty similar to the fact that historically 60% of all student aid increases have been captured with tuition hikes, and this will be treated like an increase in student aid moving forward, which suggests that 60% will be countered by tuition hikes."

As it is, the National Center for Education Statistics data shows that over a four decade period from 1981 to 2021 the cost of attending a four-year college— including tuition and fees, plus room and board and adjusted for inflation— swelled almost three times over to $29,033 per year across the country, "representing a 173 percent increase" according to Bankrate. During the 2021-22 academic year, the average annual cost of tuition and fees at a public four-year college was $10,740 for in-state students and $27,560 for out-of-state students, with the average annual rate of inflation from college tuition standing at 8%.

Since 1963, the Education Data Initiative reports college tuition has ballooned by 747.8% after adjusting for currency inflation.

In all, the Committee for a Responsible Federal Budget (CRFB) estimates that the cost of Biden’s cancellation plan could swell to as high as $390 billion and the full cost of his student debt plan could soar to as high as $600 billion. Even in the face of that kind of spending CRFB adds the plan is viewed as only a short-term fix, at best temporarily wiping out roughly a third of student loan debt, "but the sum of student debt will return to its current level in five and a half years, by 2028."

In Wisconsin, the cost of college for both in- and out-of-state students has risen over the last year, with the Education Data Initiative reporting that as of January 2022, in-state tuition and fees for a public 4-year university in across the state climbed 0.77% over the last 12 months. Over that same period, for out-of-state students, tuition and fees jumped by 1.83%, with the average cost for room and board spiraling by nearly 23% over the last year.

Back in late August, Biden announced the administration will move to cancel $10,000 of federal student loan debt for borrowers making less than $125,000 a year. In the case of borrowers who attended college on Pell Grants, the amount of forgiveness extends up to $20,000 in student loan debt.

In addition, Biden has extended pandemic-era payment freezes through the end of this December.