Elim Garak
Veteran
President Joe Biden announced Thursday his administration is canceling $6 billion in student debt for 78,000 public service workers, the latest step the White House has taken to lessen Americans’ student loan burden through incremental relief after the Supreme Court struck down sweeping debt forgiveness.
KEY FACTS
The Biden administration is canceling debt for some public service workers through the federal government’s Public Service Loan Forgiveness program.The 78,000 borrowers affected by the move Thursday include teachers, nurses, firefighters and Americans in other public roles, Biden said in a statement.
More than 870,000 public service workers have now had their loans forgiven since Biden became president, the White House said Thursday, which is up from only 7,000 whose loans had been forgiven prior to his administration.
BIG NUMBER
$144 billion. That’s the total amount the Biden administration has provided in student loan forgiveness since Biden took office, according to the White House, affecting nearly four million borrowers.TOPLINE
President Joe Biden announced Thursday his administration is canceling $6 billion in student debt for 78,000 public service workers, the latest step the White House has taken to lessen Americans’ student loan burden through incremental relief after the Supreme Court struck down sweeping debt forgiveness.
KEY FACTS
The Biden administration is canceling debt for some public service workers through the federal government’s Public Service Loan Forgiveness program.The 78,000 borrowers affected by the move Thursday include teachers, nurses, firefighters and Americans in other public roles, Biden said in a statement.
More than 870,000 public service workers have now had their loans forgiven since Biden became president, the White House said Thursday, which is up from only 7,000 whose loans had been forgiven prior to his administration.
BIG NUMBER
$144 billion. That’s the total amount the Biden administration has provided in student loan forgiveness since Biden took office, according to the White House, affecting nearly four million borrowers.WHAT TO WATCH FOR
It’s unclear when the borrowers affected by Thursday’s announcement will have their loans forgiven. The president said Thursday he “won’t back down from using every tool at my disposal to deliver student debt relief to more Americans,” though it’s still unclear what future steps Biden could take. In a budget proposal released last week, Biden suggested keeping some student loan forgiveness programs tax-free, though that still has to be passed by Congress.KEY BACKGROUND
Biden has made student loan forgiveness a key part of his presidency, though the White House’s plans to provide sweeping debt relief to borrowers was thwarted when the Supreme Court struck down the plan in June 2023, ruling the Biden administration exceeded its authority in imposing it. Instead, the Biden administration has taken incremental steps designed to provide targeted relief to subsets of borrowers, taking a series of actions that include speeding up forgiveness for borrowers whose schools shut down, addressing issues with the federal government’s income-based loan repayment program and improving application processes for disabled borrowers. Though the White House has been able to provide billions in relief using these incremental strategies, it still falls short of the $400 billion in loans the government would have forgiven had its more comprehensive plan been allowed to take effect.
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