Debt forgiveness sends terrible cultural signals. This nation is already bitterly divided along educational lines. Today’s populists are rightly angry that college-educated Americans have built a society that’s pretty sweet for them and their kids, and pretty rough for everybody else. Student loan forgiveness would be seen as just another example of the educated class taking care of its own — and leaving everyone else to eat dust.

All this is still mostly true. Yet I confess I’ve been having some second thoughts. I guess I’ve concluded that it’s wrong to generalize as if there is a single group called “college grads.” In reality, we have at least two different classes of college students and college grads. One group is secure students and grads — those who came from middle-class homes and have some resources as they go from campus into adulthood.

The other group is the precarious students and grads. Over the past few decades, America has done a much better job of getting less-affluent students through high school and into college. These folks are seizing the chance to make the big leap into the middle class, but they have few resources and no margin for error as they make that leap.