What a fantastic thread. Grad school costs and debt are way down the list of important stuff, but the Biden loan forgiveness possibility makes it relevant now.

I referenced my $150k+ in student debt the other day. 95% of that was law school debt (cry me a river, I know). 1/x https://twitter.com/kevincarey1/status/1331356847991885824

Cost was an *enormous* barrier for me when it came to undergrad. 17 y/o me literally yelled & cried in the GSU admissions counselors' office (thank you, Miranda). Eventually, that was sorted (thank you, Georgia lottery funds!). But when it came time for law school? 2/x

Apparently all this 21 year old had to do was sign for it! (Always a great idea, right?) I'd managed an undergrad ('96) w/ ~$5k in personal debt, and then swan dived into more debt than my parents ever incurred for a house. But American dream, that's what you do, etc. No?

3/x

Again, not asking for an ounce of sympathy. But this 21 y/o signed up for enormous debt on the strength of "I'm going to be a lawyer!" and "If you work hard, you'll be rewarded." [pausing here for you to recover from the laughter, but it was genuine.] 4/x

When I graduated in '00, my loan payments were ~$1200/mo? (I think higher, but eh). Holy fuck, how was I going to pay that when the pub interest jobs I wanted paid $35k? Lucky me, I landed a great job (boutique commlaw firm) that turned into Biglaw* ($$$). 5/x

So there isn't really a super-sad ending to this story. I managed to wrangle a job that let me make every payment on time and live a very decent life. But that debt precluded me from taking any of the public interest jobs I really wanted to take. 6/x

The whole reason I went to law school was to do the sort of work those jobs offered. I'd worked full time in undergrad doing public interest work that made my heart & soul sing. I thought law school would let me do more of that,& better.

Then I had to pay my loans, instead 7/x

Which gets me back to the beginning of this thread. Enormous grad school debt is robbing our society of a huge amount of talent that would otherwise love to be a part of solving our problems. And that easy grad school debt? Is fueling the problem. 8/x

Again, the troubles of incredibly lucky people like me aren't the first (or second or third) thing we should be focusing on right now. But if we're gonna do it, we can't stop at zeroing out student debt. 9/x

We need to look at the structural issues that result in talented folks stuck in careers that service debt, and not our social needs.

So - strike the debt, and then get right to work on preventing it being accumulated in the first place. 10/10

*Don't do it.

x/x