A truly progressive plan would not only eliminate past debt, but also decrease college costs and replace future loans with grants. The current system of taking out loans to pay for college just isn’t working anymore, and we should be willing to aim high with our solutions.

Bob Hildreth

Boston

The writer is the founder of the Hildreth Institute, Inversant and La Vida Scholars, nonprofit organizations to help get low-income students to college.

To the Editor:

My son and his fellow recent graduates of four-year colleges, many of whom are currently underemployed as baristas or Uber drivers, would love to know how to get into David Leonhardt’s alternate universe where they are “doing just fine .”

Bruce J. Hector

Glen Rock, N.J.

To the Editor:

I agree with David Leonhardt. I have a friend whose daughter was accepted to several prominent private colleges, as well as a top in-state public university. After careful consideration they decided that she would go to the public university instead of taking on debt so that she could go to a private college. It wasn’t easy, but my friend was able to pay for the public university without having to take out loans, and so his daughter received a high-quality education and graduated debt-free.

But if all student debt were to be canceled, it would turn out that my friend was a fool. In that case, he should have gone into debt to pay for one of the prestigious private colleges, and then waited for someone else to pay off the loans for him.

We should not punish people for being frugal and prudent, nor should we reward those who, given a choice, choose to incur debt.

Jonathan Engel

New York

To the Editor:

To have a full — and vital — debate about how to address the $1.5 trillion student debt crisis, we need a better understanding of the problem. Our recent research shows that policymakers and experts have used faulty assumptions to assert that student debt is mostly harmless. In fact, the sharp increase in student debt has coincided with stagnant or decreasing earnings for those with college degrees. At the same time, earnings for those without a college degree have fallen even further. Borrowers find themselves squeezed: They can’t afford college, but they also can’t afford not to go.