President Joe Biden has flirted with student loan forgiveness since taking office. In fact, “forgiveness” was a major plank in his presidential platform. His forgiving of $10,000 in loans and $20,000 for Pell Grant recipients was announced on Wednesday, Aug. 24. Unfortunately for Biden, the president’s announcement failed to gain much traction. Moderate democrats running for office in November oppose student loan forgiveness, as do Republicans. Only the far-left ideologues who pull Biden’s strings remain committed to this bad idea.

Going to college is a costly endeavor. In fact, it is one of the more costly ventures most people will ever undertake. The most obvious costs are financial. Let’s look at just a few of the financial costs of going to college. According to EducationData.org, these costs include:

— The average cost of tuition at colleges and universities in the U.S. is approximately $36,000 per year, a cost that increases approximately 6.8% per year. The upward trend can be expected to continue. For example, after adjusting for inflation, the cost of tuition has increased by 361% since 1963.

— The cost of books and supplies as of this writing is approximately $1,400 per year and rising. This figure has been held down somewhat by the used book and book rental industries.

— The cost of room and board averages between $10,000 and $12,000 annually, depending on whether students live on campus or off. The higher costs are typically for living on campus.

— Miscellaneous expenses including transportation, personal care and entertainment range from approximately $3,000 to $5,000 annually.

— The cost of lost income — based on just a high school diploma — is approximately $40,000 annually or almost $160,000 over the four years of college. This means a college graduate who has no student debt begins his or her working life approximately $160,000 in the hole, income that must be made up over the course of a career for the college degree to produce an acceptable return on investment. For students with college-related debt, this number just increases.

— The cost of borrowing money for college depends on the interest rate at the time of the loan. Average student loan debt is approximately $38,000, plus interest compounded every year the individual is in college.

As high as the monetary costs of college are, the hidden cost of “forgiving” student loans is much higher. Colleges and universities claim to have as part of their purpose producing responsible, accountable, contributing citizens who are able to think critically and help improve the quality of life in their communities. Allowing students to take irresponsible loans they cannot pay back to pay for WOKE degrees that have no value and then failing to hold them accountable turns college graduates into dependent wards of the state who expect the government to take care of them. Further, worthless WOKE degrees like Fat Studies, Queer Studies and Women’s Studies — to name just a few — exist only because the federal government keeps them alive through student loans. These kinds of programs would die tomorrow if not for student loans.

The highest cost of a college degree is it can undermine a student’s values. Four years of study under Marxist professors can alter a student’s values, beliefs and worldview. Many indoctrinated students end up selling their souls to complete a college degree. Of course, this is precisely what Marxist professors want to happen. They view your sons and daughters as raw material to be molded, shaped and transformed into the Marxist ideologues of tomorrow. America’s future is in the hands of today’s college students who have been trained in the government school system since kindergarten to hate America.

Maybe these institutions should repay the loans used for worthless degrees.

COPYRIGHT 2022 OLIVER L. NORTH AND DAVID GOETSCH