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City University of NY Using COVID Relief Funds to Cancel Millions in Student Debt

City University of NY Using COVID Relief Funds to Cancel Millions in Student Debt

“I view this initiative as more than just good policy; it also affirms the recognition that challenges still exist for many New Yorkers”

CUNY let go of a lot of teaching faculty members during the pandemic. You have to wonder how they feel about this.

FOX News reports:

City University of New York forgiving up to $125 million in student debt with COVID-19 relief funds

City University of New York announced this week that it is using federal coronavirus relief funds to wipe out up to $125 million in debt and unpaid fees for more than 50,000 students who were enrolled during the pandemic.

Any eligible student at one of CUNY’s 25 campuses who was enrolled from March of last year through the Spring 2021 semester will have any unpaid debts during that time forgiven under the “CUNY Comeback Program,” which was approved by the school system’s Board of Trustees on July 6.

“Deferred Action for Childhood Arrival (DACA) recipients, other DREAMers, and similar undocumented students” are also eligible to receive the federal taxpayer funds, the school said.

“I view this initiative as more than just good policy; it also affirms the recognition that challenges still exist for many New Yorkers, and it helps to fulfill the moral imperative that is implicit in CUNY’s historic mandate to provide access to a quality education for all New Yorkers, regardless of background or means,” CUNY Chancellor Félix V. Matos Rodríguez said this week.

Enrollment at CUNY fell 5.1% last year as classes went fully remote and students navigated the pandemic.

“The COVID-19 pandemic has caused hardships in the lives of so many New Yorkers, and our students were among those most impacted,” New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo said. “This landmark new program eliminates millions of dollars in unpaid debt, providing much-needed relief to tens of thousands of CUNY students as they work to get back on their feet after the pandemic and plan for their futures.”

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Comments

Didn’t Congress put any strings or restrictions on the acceptable uses off COVID-19 relief funds?

The Friendly Grizzly | July 31, 2021 at 2:55 pm

How many of the paid-off loans went to people taking “studies” majors?

henrybowman | July 31, 2021 at 6:27 pm

The federal taxpayer takes it in the shorts again, as the federal government pisses away his money on unauthorized leftist programs.

It’s not just CCNY, community colleges all over the country are doing this (and, really, is CCNY much more than a community college these days?).

The end game will be similar to ending the moratorium on evictions from rental property: just as no time will ever be the right time to end the eviction moratorium, students will come to expect their student debt to be cancelled.

Yet if the education you consumed was not worth its cost, why then would anyone else want to pay for it?

Perhaps if your education was not worth its cost, you should complain to the school that provided it?