Pro-Pales­tin­ian protests could erode sup­port for Biden’s stu­dent loan trans­fer scheme

Repub­li­cans are sens­ing a new open­ing to attack the Biden admin­is­tra­tion for its near­ly $160 bil­lion in stu­dent loan debt can­cel­la­tion as pro-Pales­tin­ian protests on elite col­lege cam­pus­es across the coun­try spawn images of chaos and, in some cas­es, destruc­tion.
The protests have spread nation­wide since an encamp­ment at Colum­bia Uni­ver­si­ty sprout­ed two weeks ago. Most of the protests have bro­ken school pol­i­cy with occu­pa­tions of parts of cam­pus, and some have been char­ac­ter­ized by pro­test­ers who block stu­dents from going to class, intim­i­date class­mates, and some who have even engaged in “mob war­fare” at the Uni­ver­si­ty of Cal­i­for­nia, Los Ange­les, accord­ing to Jonathan Butch­er, senior research fel­low in edu­ca­tion pol­i­cy for the Her­itage Foun­da­tion.
“Tax­pay­ers should be ask­ing what they are pay­ing for with stu­dent loans,” Butch­er said in an inter­view with the Wash­ing­ton Exam­in­er. “Tax­pay­ers are being asked to pay debt for a sec­tor, high­er edu­ca­tion, that at the moment is not demo …