According to the Department of Education, the total amount of student loan forgiveness during Joe Biden’s term as president is $180 billion.
The administration of US President Joe Biden is Cancel student loans for an additional 55,000 people in the United States, amounting to $4.2 billion in debt relief, just weeks before the end of his term.
The White House said in a opinion on Friday that the move would affect public sector workers, including teachers, nurses and police officers.
This brings the total number of Americans who received student debt relief during Biden’s term as president to nearly five million.
“Thanks to our actions, millions of people across the country now have the opportunity to start businesses, save for retirement and pursue life plans that they had to put on hold because of the burden of student loan debt,” the White House said.
In a separate statement, the Education Department said the Biden administration had forgiven a total of about $180 billion in student loans.
Friday’s announcement is expected to be the final round of public service loan forgiveness before Biden leaves office in January.
The Democratic president had unveiled one pioneering forgiveness program cancel hundreds of billions of dollars in student debt in 2022.
The plan would have made certain borrowers eligible for $20,000 in cancellation, while the vast majority were eligible for $10,000.
But the conservative majority Supreme Court The program was repealed last year on the grounds that the president had overstepped his authority given the large sum.
Biden promised to fight After the ruling, he has since focused on expanding credit relief through targeted programs.
Under Biden, the Education Department relaxed rules for public service loan forgiveness, which previously had a 99 percent denial rate, because the rules were burdensome and confusion over eligibility requirements was widespread.
In the United States, college can often cost between $10,000 and $70,000 per year, leaving some graduates with crippling debt when they enter the workforce.
According to the Pew Research Center, one in four American adults under the age of 40 have student loan debt, with the average amount owed in 2023 ranging from $20,000 to $25,000, depending on education level.
