Biden: ‘I’m Prepared to Write Off the $10,000 (Student) Debt, But Not $50K’

President Biden told a CNN-sponsored town hall Tuesday night he’s prepared to write off $10,000 in student debt, but not $50,000, as progressives are demanding.

“But I do think that, in this moment of economic pain and strain, that we should be eliminating interest on the debts that are accumulated, number one. And, number two, I’m prepared to write off the $10,000 debt, but not $50 (thousand). Because I don’t think I have the authority to do it by signing with a pen.”

Someone in the audience told Biden, “We need student loan forgiveness beyond the potential $10,000 your administration has proposed. We need at least a $50,000 minimum. What will you do to make that happen?”

“I will not make that happen,” Biden told her.

It depends on whether or not you go to a private university or a public university. It depends on the idea that I say to a community, I’m going to forgive the debt, the billions of dollars of debt for people who have gone to Harvard and Yale and Penn; and schools my children — I went to a great school. I went to a state school.

But is that is going to be forgiven, rather than use that money to provide money for early education for young children who are — come from disadvantaged circumstances?

But here’s what I think. I think everyone — and I have been proposing this for four years. Everyone should be able to go to community college for free, for free. That’s — (applause) — that costs $9 billion. And we should pay for it.

Biden also said he thinks “any family making under $125,000 whose kids go to a state university they get into, that should be free as well.”

As for student debt already accumulated, Biden would allow “debt forgiveness if you engage in volunteer activity.”

“For example, if you were — if you’re teaching school, after five years, you would have $50,000 of your debt forgiven. If you worked in a battered women’s shelter, if you worked — and so on. So, you would be able to forgive debt.”

Biden said he also would support limiting the debt repayment taken out of a former student’s take-home pay, “so that it doesn’t affect your ability to buy a car, own a home, et cetera.”

“Each of my children graduated from school. I mortgaged the house. I was listed as the poorest man in Congress for — not a joke — for over 30 years,” Biden said.

Biden noted that each of his three children graduated from college and graduate school with debt greater than $100,000: “So I don’t think anybody should have to pay for that, but I do think you should be able to work it off.”

Biden also questioned what universities are doing: “They don’t need more skyboxes,” he said.

“What they need is more money invested in making — so, that’s why I provide, for example, $80 billion — $70 billion over 10 years for HBCUs and other minority-serving universities, because they don’t have the laboratories to be able to bring in those government contracts that can train people in cybersecurity or other future endeavors that pay well.”

This article originally appeared on CNSNews.