The Biden administration is plugging its student loan plans one more time ahead of Election Day, announcing another $4.7 billion of loans that will not have to be repaid by roughly 60,000 people.
“For too long, the government failed to live up to its commitments, and only 7,000 people had ever received forgiveness under Public Service Loan Forgiveness before Vice President Kamala Harris and I took office,” President Joe Biden said in a prepared statement. “Now over 1 million public service workers have gotten the relief they are entitled to under the law.”
Biden has made several rounds of student loan forgiveness announcements that he’s described as “fixes” to existing programs. This latest one is for people enrolled in the PSLF program, with the administration saying it will help teachers, nurses, and firefighters.
Student loans have been a major point of focus for Biden during his time in the White House. He has announced plans and programs that would cost more than $1 trillion combined, only to see much of it clawed back by courts ruling he can’t make such moves without Congress.
Most notably, the Supreme Court in June 2023 ruled against a program that would have transferred at least $400 billion from individual loan holders to taxpayers. But Biden has pressed forward with new initiatives since, many of which have also been blocked in court.
Biden met last week with a kindergarten teacher who had been paying student loans for 12 years and let her know she was receiving forgiveness totaling more than $46,000. The administration is also partnering with a number of unions, including the American Federation of Teachers and the National Education Association, which will be sharing news about student loan forgiveness with their members.
Republicans have openly accused Biden and the Democratic Party of buying votes.
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“Over 60 percent of Americans don’t have a college degree, but Joe Biden wants hardworking taxpayers to foot higher education bills for the elite few,” the Republican National Committee said earlier this year. “In Biden’s desperate attempt to use your money to buy votes, American families are left behind.”
In total, the administration says it has spent more than $175 billion forgiving loans for more than 4.8 million people.