The United States Joe Biden-Kamala Harris administration announced on Monday that it has canceled $132 billion in student debt relief for more than 3.6 million Americans through various actions.
The announcement came after the Supreme Court struck down the president’s original plan to forgive up to $20,000 in debt for low- and middle-income borrowers.
The cancellations have come through existing federal student loan forgiveness programs, such as the Public Service Loan Forgiveness program and the income-driven repayment program. The programs are limited to specific categories of borrowers, such as public-sector workers, people defrauded by for-profit colleges and borrowers who have paid for at least 20 years.
The Department of Education said that most of these borrowers were notified in November that their outstanding federal student loan debt would be canceled and they can expect to see the changes made to their accounts in the coming weeks.
The Education Secretary Miguel Cardona said that the latest discharges are a result of the administration’s relentless efforts to fix the broken student loan system and get hard-earned debt relief into the hands of eligible borrowers.
Disclosing this via its X handle on Monday, the Whitehouse wrote, “President Biden has long believed that college should be a ticket to the middle class, not a financial burden that weighs on families.
Here are a few ways our Administration put education in reach for more Americans this year.
“So far, the Biden-Harris Administration has canceled 3.6 million Americans’ student loan debt through various actions. And we’re not stopping there.”
