President Biden to cancel another $5B in student debt

The Biden administration announced recently it’s canceling another $5 billion in student debt relief, largely for public servants, the latest incremental step the White House has taken on student loan forgiveness, even though its more ambitious student loan relief program was thwarted by the Supreme Court.
 
Under the new plan, approximately 74,000 borrowers will have their student loan debt forgiven, the White House said .
 
Of those 74,000, approximately 44,000 are public servants like teachers, nurses and firefighters who qualified for loan forgiveness after 10 years through the Public Service Loan Forgiveness program.
 
Another nearly 30,000 are borrowers on income-driven repayment plans who didn’t get the relief they earned.
 
More than $136 billion. 
That’s the total amount of student debt the Biden administration has now canceled, according to government figures cited by multiple outlets, affecting approximately 3.7 million Americans. 
 
Student loan relief has been a major priority for Democrats and President Joe Biden, who promised to cancel $10,000 in federal loans per borrower on the campaign trail. Biden announced an ambitious student loan forgiveness program in 2022, which would have forgiven $10,000 in federal student debt for borrowers earning less than $125,000, or $20,000 for Pell grant recipients. The Supreme Court blocked the policy from taking effect in June.