President Joe Biden’s administration is making news by canceling $1.2 billion in student loans for around 153,000 people as part of a program to fulfill promises to increase debt forgiveness, according to The New York Post.
The effort comes after the Supreme Court rejected a bigger $430 billion student loan forgiveness scheme last June, prompting Biden to look into other ways to handle the issue.
The White House emphasizes that this approach will aid community colleges and other borrowers with lesser debts, hastening their road to student debt relief.
Individuals who borrowed $12,000 or less and paid on their federal student loans for at least ten years will have their amounts forgiven under the new repayment plan.
Those enrolled in the SAVE program are anticipated to get emails on Wednesday informing them of the $1.2 billion in federal student loan debt forgiveness.
As the presidential race heats up, Biden’s administration hopes to highlight its efforts to alleviate student loan debt, potentially using the cancellation as a political move to connect with voters.
The administration’s commitment to tackling student loan issues was reaffirmed in a statement: “From day one of my administration, I vowed to fix student loan programs so higher education can be a ticket to the middle class—not a barrier to opportunity.”
Despite initial plans to begin in July, the administration launched the debt forgiveness process in February, expediting the timeframe.
Many government loan debt cancellations predate Biden’s presidency, although his administration has surpassed others in cancellations, partly due to efforts to rectify past administrative issues and temporarily expand certain debt relief programs.
