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The Biden administration announced Thursday that it would approve an additional $4.5 billion in loans. student loan To over 60,000 borrowers.
The relief package is the result of efforts by the U.S. Department of Education. correction to the popular but once troubled Public Service Loan Forgiveness Program.
President Joe Biden, who has forgiven more education debt than any president in U.S. history, said the number of borrowers benefiting from the program under his administration now exceeds 1 million.
“Teachers, nurses, firefighters and other public servants are the foundation of our communities and our country,” Biden said in a statement. “But for too long, the government has failed to deliver on its promises.”
The PSLF program, signed by President George W. Bush in 2007, allows certain nonprofit organizations and public employees to cancel their federal student loans after 10 years. In 2013, the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau found that a quarter of American workers may be eligible.
However, this program had a problem. In many cases, borrowers believed they were on track to cancel their loan, but at some point they realized they did not qualify for a technicality, such as the loan type or repayment plan.
Before Biden took office, just 7,000 people received debt relief under PSLF, according to the U.S. Department of Education. The program’s rejection rate has reached 98% in some years.
Under the Biden administration, the U.S. Department of Education loosened the program’s requirements and overhauled how it is administered.
Borrowers eligible for this relief should learn that their debts have been canceled in the coming weeks. Higher education expert Mark Kantowitz estimates that the average student loan balance forgiven under PSLF is about $70,000.
Thursday’s announcement comes in the final week of an extremely close race between Vice President Kamala Harris and former President Donald Trump.
In addition to working on student loan relief efforts in the Biden administration, Harris said that if she wins in November, she will focus on helping more Black men become public school teachers and support the PSLF program. promised to strengthen the
By contrast, President Trump has called for an end to the Public Service Loan Forgiveness Initiative and has voiced opposition to other efforts by the Biden administration to cancel education debt.
