Wealth
Billionaire Vow to Erase Students' Debt Sows Joy, Confusion
- ‘We’re gonna put a little fuel in your bus,’ Robert Smith says
- The mechanics of how loans will be repaid are still unclear
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Billionaire Robert F. Smith stunned students at Morehouse College when he vowed to pay off the student loans of every member of the class of 2019.
“On behalf of the eight generations of my family that have been in this country, we’re gonna put a little fuel in your bus,” Smith, 56, founder of Vista Equity Partners, said Sunday during his commencement speech to the Atlanta college’s graduating class. “My family is going to create a grant to eliminate your student loans,” Smith added, according to a Twitter post by Morehouse.