OAN’s James Meyers
7:54 AM – Wednesday, February 21, 2024
The Biden administration has announced they are canceling another $1.2 billion in student loan debt for over 150,000 borrowers, six months ahead of schedule.
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President Joe Biden activated a Savings on Valuable Education (SAVE) plan policy, which cancels debt for enrolled borrowers who have been in repayment for at least 10 years and have $12,000 or less in student debt loans.
People with larger debts will receive relief after each additional year of payments for every additional $1,000 they borrowed.
“This shortened time to forgiveness will particularly help community college and other borrowers with smaller loans and put many on track to being free of student debt faster than ever before,” the White House said in a statement. “Under the Biden-Harris Administration’s SAVE plan, 85 percent of future community college borrowers will be debt free within 10 years.”
Meanwhile, Biden has now wiped away $138 billion in federal student loans from almost 4 million borrowers without a single act of Congress.
“From Day One of his Administration, President Biden vowed to fix the student loan system and make sure higher education is a pathway to the middle class — not a barrier to opportunity,” the White House said.
According to the White House, the almost 153,000 borrowers will receive an email informing them of the latest relief issued by Biden.
Additionally, the U.S. Department of Education will start contacting borrowers who are not enrolled in the SAVE plan but who are eligible for relief to convince them to sign up.
Since Biden has taken office, the administration has approved $56.7 billion in debt cancelation for over 793,000 borrowers through the Public Service Loan Forgiveness (PSFL) program; $45.6 billion for 930,500 borrowers through improvements to income-driven repayment; $11.7 billion for 513,000 borrowers with a total and permanent disability; and $22.5 billion for 1.3 million borrowers through closed school discharges.
“With today’s announcement, we are once again sending a clear message to borrowers who had low balances: if you’ve been paying for a decade, you’ve done your part, and you deserve relief,” said Secretary of Education Miguel Cardona. “Under President Biden’s leadership, our Administration has now approved loan forgiveness for nearly 3.9 million borrowers, and our historic fight to cancel student debt isn’t over yet.”
However, Republicans have been against the Biden administration’s student debt loan forgiveness, arguing that the taxpayers will ultimately have to pay for it in the long run.
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