The Biden Administration, once again, is trying to use executive action to reduce student loan debt.

And once again, the White House’s approach fails to address the root causes of this problem and ignores the historic avenues that allow such root causes or larger concerns to be aired and alleviated — while setting expensive precedents in an age of a $34 trillion national debt.

As we observed in a January editorial, “any proposal to cancel or forgive student loan debt without addressing the underlying problem — that for decades college tuition has increased in cost at a rate much greater than families’ incomes — only fuels the appetite to spend our way out of the problem temporarily. As new students enroll and take on such grossly inflated tuition, we immediately begin down the road to the same problem, only likely more expensive in the future.”

Our legislators are willing to offer solutions — better solutions. As we noted in an editorial in September of 2023, U.S. Sen. John Fetterman, D-Braddock and U.S. Rep. Glenn Thompson, R-Howard, have offered bills that address student loan debt in more affordable, more targeted ways.

Fetterman’s proposal, co-sponsored by U.S. Rep. Madeleine Dean, D-Lower Merion Township, focuses relief on students and former students who survived crimes, stalking or harassment. Thompson’s proposal focuses on students and former students in the agricultural field — a vital sector of our economy from which every American benefits.

Both proposals are superior to any notion that the taxpayers owes assistance to anyone who took on student loans, irregardless of their own choices and responsibilities.

As we’ve repeatedly said, the principal advantage to using the traditional method of transparent debate and compromise in our legislature is that bills can be improved and concerns and apprehensions addressed.

As we said in an editorial in July of 2023, “a balanced, more fair approach to this contentious issue can be found — through the transparent debate and compromise of the legislative process.”