(The Center Square) – The Wisconsin attorney general wants to forgive up to $ 50,000 in federally guaranteed student loans, and there are people on the State Capitol who want to know why.

Attorney General Josh Kaul joined 15 other states on Monday in calling on Congress to write off the student loan debts of millions across the country.

But critics wonder why Kaul, Wisconsin’s top law enforcement official, is getting into the student loan business.

“Besides not being a law enforcement issue, but rather a policy issue, Attorney General Kaul put his name on a letter riddled with misleading and misinformation about student debt,” said Rep. Dave Murphy, R-Greenville, said Thursday.

Murphy said students who fell victim to predatory student loans were already eligible for protections, and Kaul was welcome to help.

“Instead of spending time writing letters to Congress, I would encourage our Wisconsin attorney general to do his job if he honestly thinks our state colleges are exploiting students with readily available federal loans,” added Murphy.

Brett Healy of the MacIver Institute echoed the same sentiment.

“For the top law enforcement officials in this country, defending this issue and trying to pass it off as a civil rights issue is frankly disappointing and disgusting,” Healy told The Center Square.

Healy said the issue of student debt is shifting from an education and financial issue to a political issue.

“We cannot make student debt a right that all taxpayers must pay. Student debt is the sole responsibility of the student, no one else, ”Healy explained. “If you don’t want to take on student debt and pay off that debt, don’t go to college you can’t afford or get a degree in something that won’t pay your bills. No one ever needs to go into debt to get a college degree.

Kaul’s call for student loan cancellation is supported exclusively by Democratic Attorneys General in Massachusetts, New York, Connecticut, Delaware, Hawaii, Illinois, Maryland, Minnesota, Nevada , New Jersey, New Mexico, Oregon, Vermont, Virginia, Washington and the District of Columbia.

“A lot of Americans have significant student loan debt,” Kaul said in a statement. “This problem has been exacerbated by a variety of other factors, such as the use of deceptive business practices by predatory for-profit colleges and the difficulty in qualifying for a loan forgiveness.”