US President Joe Biden on Wednesday announced the cancellation of another $7.7 billion in student debt for 160,000 borrowers, bringing the total number of people to benefit from his debt relief push to 4.75 million, despite Republican opposition.
The debt relief extends to some borrowers enrolled in the new income-driven repayment plan known as SAVE (Saving on a Valuable Education) Plan who had received an average of over $35,000 in debt cancellation. They include teachers, nurses, law enforcement officials and other public service workers, or borrowers who were approved for relief through other changes, the White House said.
This announcement continues the Biden administration’s efforts to ease the student debt burden on Americans, particularly those who serve in public sector roles or who are part of income-driven repayment plans.
“Today’s announcement comes on top of the significant progress we’ve made for students and borrowers over the past three years. That includes providing the largest increases to the maximum Pell Grant in over a decade; fixing public service loan forgiveness so teachers, nurses, police officers and other public service workers get the relief they are entitled to under the law and holding colleges accountable for taking advantage of students and families. And last month, I laid out my administration’s new plans that would cancel student debt for more than 30 million Americans when combined with everything we’ve done so far,” Biden said in a statement.
“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 cancel student debt – no matter how many times Republican elected officials try to stop us,” he said.
Wednesday’s announcement brings total debt relief approved by the Biden administration to $167 billion.
The issue remains high on the agenda of younger voters, many of whom have concerns about Biden’s foreign policy on the war in Gaza and fault him for not achieving greater debt forgiveness.
The campaign of former President Donald Trump, Biden’s Republican challenger in the White House race, in March criticised the student loan cancellation as a bailout that was done “without a single act of Congress.”
Republicans have called Biden’s student loan forgiveness approach an overreach of his authority and an unfair benefit to college-educated borrowers while other borrowers received no such relief.
With inputs from agencies.
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