What students think of Biden’s loan forgiveness plan – Chicago Tribune

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Valentino Wilson saw his debt pile up when he got a bachelor’s and master’s degrees in engineering. His parents had saved up for college, but then his mom, a teacher, became chronically ill. The money went toward ballooning medical bills.

Wilson, of Bartlett, has $70,000 in loans under his name and another $160,000 under his father’s name that he pays. The 25-year-old said it could take up to 30 years to pay off his student loans.

Across Chicago on Wednesday, borrowers like Wilson reacted to the news that President Joe Biden planned to forgive between $10,000 and $20,000 in student debt relief.

“My loan is accruing $10,000 in debt each year, so it really doesn’t do that much for me,” said Wilson, a biomedical engineering doctorate at the University of Illinois at Chicago, from outside the campus student center.

More than 40 million Americans could see their student loan debt reduced — and in many cases eliminated — under the long-awaited forgiveness plan Biden announced.

Read the full story from Jake Sheridan and Adriana Perez.

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Chicago Public Schools students who have not received bus transportation — even though their education plans require the service — will be routed by Sept. 6, CEO Pedro Martinez said. Classes started Monday across the district.

Martinez said about 640 students will be routed this week, while another 600-plus students will be routed by the day after Labor Day. Martinez also promised to review the routes that take longer than 90 minutes that have been given to 365 families. The average route time is 39 minutes, he said.

Chicago aldermen have until next week to decide if they will forgo raises of nearly 10% — otherwise the pay increases will go into effect automatically just weeks before all their seats are up for election.

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Similar to the yearly property tax request, changes in City Council pay are tied automatically to the rate of inflation, which allows aldermen to avoid having to vote annually on politically sensitive proposals such as tax increases or their own salaries.

The Obama Foundation is making major inroads on their diversity hiring ambitions.

The foundation’s annual workforce report cites the organization is on track to meet its workforce and diversity goals for construction with 52% of contracts already awarded to more diverse vendors, with 32% of the workforce coming from the South and West sides of the city. The city of Chicago requires that developers award 32% of contracts to minority- and women-owned businesses, and that 50% of the workers reside in Chicago.

Paul Sullivan writes that Project Birmingham seems like a good idea and bears watching with the Sox rebuild having stalled two years after ending their postseason drought in 2020.

It’s not unthinkable to envision White Sox executive vice president Kenny Williams making drastic changes in the offseason if the team continues hovering around .500 and misses out on October even with the extra wild-card spot.

Summer in Chicago is a short 93 days — nobody is saying this is fair, but also nobody is saying that it’s over just yet. September may be arriving next week but the season still has more to offer, be it with an open-air concert on Northerly Island or a walk in a hidden city garden.

Critics, writers and some frequent contributors have come up with a list of what we’d like to get outside and do before summer ends.