Biden forgives $4.28B of student debt for almost 55,000 Americans

Dec. 20 (UPI) — Almost 55,000 Americans working in the public service will have their collective $4.28 billion worth of student debt forgiven, U.S. President Joe Biden announced Friday.

“The public servants approved for debt cancellation today include teachers, nurses, service members, law enforcement officials, and other public service workers who have dedicated their lives to giving back to their communities and who are finally earning the relief they are entitled to under the law,” Biden said in a statement issued by the White House Friday.

The Biden administration has now forgiven federal student loan debt for nearly 5 million people with Friday’s news officially affecting 54,900 people, according to the U.S. Department of Education.

Biden has made forgiving federal student loan debt one of the priorities of his presidency. One of the pillars of that philosophy included fixing the Public Service Loan Forgiveness program that was created in 2007 by President George W. Bush.

In August, the U.S. Supreme Court blocked Biden’s attempt to pass legislation that would cancel or forgive student loan debt for millions of American borrowers.

The Biden administration then moved toward more narrowly-focussed student loan forgiveness for smaller groups of people.

“With the approval of another $4.28 billion in loan forgiveness for nearly 55,000 public servants, the Administration has secured nearly $180 billion in life-changing student debt relief for nearly five million borrowers,” U.S. Secretary of Education Miguel Cardona said in the agency’s statement Friday.

In October, the White House approved $4.5 billion for 60,000 public service borrowers in the latest round of debt forgiveness.

Later that month, the Department of Education said new rules enacted in February would allow it to help forgive student debt for around 8 million Americans working in the public service.

“Over the last four years, we have made significant progress for students and borrowers – including securing the largest increase to the maximum Pell Grant award in over a decade; holding institutions accountable for taking advantage of students; and fixing broken student loan programs such as Public Service Loan Forgiveness and Income Driven Repayment,” Biden said in the statement Friday.