College costs grew at the slowest rate in years, but this is cold comfort, as the cost of a four-year education, when accounting for amenities, remains staggeringly high, reported CNBC. The College Board said that yearly tuition and fees alone reached $10,560 for in-state students in four-year public colleges in the 2020-21 year, and $37,650 for private institutions. When room, board, books and other expenses are factored in, the tab can reach as high as $70,000 per year, meaning you could buy one luxury car per year for the cost of college. At the same time, these prices represent only a 1 to 2 percent increase, compared to the average 3 to 5 percent we've seen over the past years. The tiny price hike is, in fact, the lowest since the early 1990s. This is largely due to COVID-19, which put pressure on schools to reduce costs as they shifted to remote learning.

Given the princely sum an education costs today (and is prince even the right rank?— seems more emperor-size, truthfully), it is likely that students will continue to borrow to afford schooling, adding to the already $1.7 trillion debt load young people are already struggling with. President-elect Joe Biden said that he wants to forgive $10,000 for all student borrowers, and additional amounts for those who attended public colleges or historically Black colleges and universities and earn less than $125,000 a year. Such measures would cut debts by about a third.

Doing so would likely have a stimulative effect on the economy. Federal Reserve Chair Jerome Powell, in 2018, said that rising student debt was creating a drag on the economy, a conclusion backed by previous Fed research. One 2016 Federal Reserve study found that every 10 percent increase in student loan debt reduces home ownership by 0.1 percentage points among 25- and 26-year olds who had attended college. A 2015 research paper by the Federal Reserve found that increases of one standard deviation in student debt reduced the number of businesses with one to four employees by 14 percent on average between 2000 and 2010.

A 2018 paper by the Levy Economic Institute at Bard College said that a one-time policy of student debt cancellation would have a meaningful stimulus effect, with only moderate effects on the federal budget, interest rates and inflation.