By Karen Stokes
(Photo/Cato at Liberty)
On Wednesday, President Biden announced an additional $4.5 billion in student debt cancellation for over 60,000 borrowers through the Public Service Loan Forgiveness (PSLF) program, bringing the number of public service workers who have had their student loans canceled to over 1 million people during the Biden-Harris Administration.
“Before President Biden and Vice President Harris entered the White House, the Public Service Loan Forgiveness program was so riddled by dysfunction that just 7,000 Americans ever qualified and countless public servants were trapped making payments on debts that should have been forgiven,” said U.S. Secretary of Education Miguel Cardona. “From Day One, the Biden-Harris administration made fixing this broken program a top priority, and today, I’m tremendously proud that over one million teachers, nurses, social workers, veterans, and other public servants have received life changing loan forgiveness. As Secretary of Education, I want to send a message to college students across America that pursuing a career in public service is not only a noble calling but a reliable pathway to becoming debt-free within a decade.”
“Public service workers– teachers, nurses, firefighters, and more– are the bedrocks of our communities and our country. They dedicate their careers to giving back to others and were given the promise of student debt forgiveness after 10 years of public service and 10 years of payments under the Public Service Loan Forgiveness program. But for too long, the government failed to live up to its commitments, and only 7,000 people had ever received forgiveness under Public Service Loan Forgiveness before Vice President Harris and I took office,” said President Biden. “We vowed to fix that, and because of actions from our Administration, now over 1 million public service workers have gotten the relief they are entitled to under the law.”
Wednesday’s announcement is part of the Biden-Harris Administration’s broader set of actions to reduce the burden of student debt and ensure that student loans are not a barrier to educational and economic opportunity for students and families.
According to the White House, President Biden and Vice President Harris secured a $900 increase to the maximum Pell Grant award– the largest increase in more than a decade. Since taking office, the Biden-Harris Administration has approved through various actions $175 billion in student debt relief for nearly 5 million Americans, each of whom has been approved for an average of $35,000 in student debt cancellation. These actions have benefited borrowers in every state, territory, and congressional district in the United States.
This approved relief includes:
• $74 billion for over 1 million borrowers through the PSLF program.
• $56.5 billion for more than 1.4 million borrowers through Income-Driven Repayment, including the Saving on a Valuable Education SAVE plan. This includes administrative adjustments to income-driven repayment that brought borrowers closer to forgiveness and addressed long standing problems due to past inaccuracies and the misuse of forbearance by loan servicers.
• $28.7 billion for more than 1.6 million borrowers who were cheated by their schools, saw their institutions precipitously close, or are covered by related court settlements.
• $16.2 billion for nearly 572,000 borrowers with a total and permanent disability.
“From day one of my Administration, I promised to fight to ensure higher education is a ticket to the middle class, not a barrier to opportunity. I will never stop working to make higher education affordable– no matter how many times Republican elected officials try to stop us,” the President said.