Sen. Gillibrand seeks to enforce loan forgiveness

Sen. Kirsten Gillibrand (D-NY) discussed enforcing student loan forgiveness for public college students during a town hall Tuesday.

About 120 people attended the town hall, held at the Southwest Community Center in downtown Syracuse. Gillibrand, who launched a presidential campaign in 2019, said the student loan forgiveness process isn’t working as intended.

Student loan forgiveness aims to cover the debt of public college students who work for 10 years in the public sector. The process is good for fostering community development, but falls short because not all students eligible for loan forgiveness receive the benefits, Gillibrand said.

“It’s very frustrating because there was this idea that if you did 10 years of public service, you can get your debt forgiven,” Gillibrand said.

The senator would like to create legislation providing two years of tuition-free community or state college to students who agree to work for one year in the public sector. Students who agree to work for two years would receive four years of tuition-free public college, she said.

“It’s a way to incentivize more kids to, number one, get access to affordable, debt-free college. Second, to then take that benefit they have just received and turn it into a gift for the community doing public service,” Gillibrand said.

Private college students should also be able to refinance student loan debt at about 4% interest, Gillibrand. The senator said she’d try to make the refinance rate available for all federal student loans to make private universities more affordable.

Gillibrand said after the meeting that it would be possible to apply her plan for public sector service to private schools and colleges. The plan would make the cost of private education more affordable, but not free, she said.

During the forum, Gillibrand said she’s also focusing on social media data privacy.

The senator is going to work to establish a federal data protection agency to review how people are targeted with “propaganda misinformation” through social media, she said.

“I don’t think (social media companies) have ever been held accountable for what happened in the last election,” Gillibrand said. “The fact that Russians were able to buy Facebook pages with ruble. They should have figured that one out, but they didn’t, and have not been held accountable.”

Social media companies should allow parents to block “the nasty and negative” people and comments on their children’s social media, she said.

Replacement methods for the aging Interstate-81 viaduct in Syracuse were also discussed at the town hall. Removing the viaduct is important for local economic growth opportunities and environmental well-being, Gillibrand said. She wants to hire and train Syracuse workers to construct the community grid alternative to I-81.

The senator also said that more workers are needed for public service professions, including nurses, home health aides, public school teachers and military personnel, Gillibrand said. She wants to use public education to help tackle problems such as climate change.

“The truth is we’re going to need a whole host of young people who want to work on the green economy,” Gillibrand said.