President Joe Biden is hoping to put a dent in the nearly $1.7 trillion of student loan debt in the U.S.

“Education is expensive so if we want the future to be educated and prosper, yes, you need to let go of student debt,” Muneca Araujo, a freshman at McLennan Community College, said.

Expensive doesn’t even come close to the more than $111 billion in student debt in Texas, and for students like Araujo, debt creates barriers.

“I’m a mother, I’m a rapper, I have ambition too,” Araujo said.

“Light, water, gas is expensive. You would have more students in school if they didn’t have to worry about the hardships of having debt when they leave school.”

The Biden administration is proposing debt forgiveness of as much as $10,000 for borrowers.

Students say that would mean less of a burden and would give them the ability to pursue the education they really want.

“Community college is the cheaper route and a lot of people probably want to avoid the student loans, so they are not able to go to their dream school or be able to go off and do what they want because of how much it costs,” Kaelyn Berry, a sophomore at McLennan Community College, said.

Financial experts like Ray Perryman say the impact would be felt here at home.

“We have a major university, a community college, and a technical school in the area,” Perryman said.

“We obviously have a lot of students who have received financial assistance and are still in the area.”

Perryman says it’s a step in the right direction.

“The much bigger problem is day in and day out is how do we make education more affordable for people going forward?” Perryman said.

There is a tiny catch, though. Perryman says debt forgiveness is taxable.

But that even then, he says borrowers should come out ahead.

—KWTX