The Biden administration on Thursday said it is forgiving $1.2 billion in student debt for 35,000 borrowers who work in public service, ranging from teachers to firefighters. The announcement marks the latest round in government loan relief after the Supreme Court last year blocked President Joe Biden’s plan for broad-based college loan forgiveness.
With the latest student loan forgiveness, the Biden administration said it has waived $168.5 billion in debt for roughly 4.8 million Americans, according to a statement from the Department of Education. That represents about 1 in 10 student loan borrowers, it added.
The people who qualify for forgiveness in the latest round of debt cancellation are part of the Public Service Loan Forgiveness (PSLF) program, which is designed to help public servants such as teachers, nurses and law enforcement officers get their debt canceled after 10 years of repayments. While PSLF has been around since 2007, until recently very few borrowers were able to get debt relief due to its notoriously complex regulations and often misleading guidance from loan companies.
