President Biden will reach another historic milestone by canceling $4.7 billion more in student loans.
According to a fact sheet from the White House:
Today, 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 cancelled to over 1 million people during the Biden-Harris Administration. Before President Biden and Vice President Harris took office, only 7,000 borrowers had ever received forgiveness through PSLF.
Thanks to the Biden-Harris Administration’s significant improvements to the PSLF program, over 1 million teachers, firefighters, law enforcement officials, nurses, servicemembers, and other public service workers who have dedicated their lives to serving their communities are getting the student debt relief they are entitled to under the law.
Last week, President Biden met with a kindergarten teacher who has been paying her loans for 12 years and let her know that she is one of the 1 million people approved for PSLF under his Administration, and over $46,000 of her loans are being cancelled. In total, the Biden-Harris Administration has approved $175 billion in student debt relief for nearly 5 million borrowers through various actions.
Secretary of Education Cardona explained to PoliticusUSA during a call with reporters the significance of this action because Trump was indifferent to the problem, “Public servants saw their applications fall victim to find print technicalities to red tape to accounting errors and a wall of indifference from the Trump administration, these Americans acted in good faith. They paid their student loans while they were working in the public interest, but instead of fixing public service, loan forgiveness, my predecessor was more focused on handouts for predatory for profit colleges.”
Trump used the Department of Education to reward for profit colleges that often scammed and left students buried in debt. Biden fixed the student loan forgiveness program. Helping people who work hard in their communities often for low pay get relief wasn’t a priority for Trump.
Biden’s actions to help student borrowers are an example of what a president can do when they care about the well being of people.
Biden has translated his care into real action and in the process improved the lives of millions of Americans.