The Biden administration has now forgiven student loans for one million public servants.
Andrew Caballero-Reynolds/AFP via Getty Images
After overhauling a 17-year-old program, the Biden administration has now forgiven student loans for one million public service workers—a milestone the Education Department celebrated as “unprecedented.”
The administration crossed the one million threshold Thursday after discharging another $4.5 billion for more than 60,000 student loan borrowers including teachers, nurses and first responders. The department has now forgiven $74 billion in debt through the Public Service Loan Forgiveness program, which Congress created in 2007 to wipe out outstanding loans for qualified borrowers after they made payments for 10 years. Few workers benefited from the program before the Biden administration took over and implemented several changes to make that relief easier to access.
“Before President Biden and Vice President Harris entered the White House, the Public Service Loan Forgiveness program was so riddled by dysfunction that just 7,000 Americans ever qualified and countless public servants were trapped making payments on debts that should have been forgiven,” Education Secretary Miguel Cardona said in a statement. “From day one, the Biden-Harris administration made fixing this broken program a top priority.”
The department worked to fix the system by temporarily overhauling the program in October 2021, making it easier for eligible borrowers to apply for forgiveness and streamlining the process. Many of those changes became permanent under regulations that took effect in July 2023. This summer, the department took over managing the PSLF program, rather than having a student loan servicing company run it.
“This program is essential to bring new workers into the important roles of public service and reward their contributions,” said Kristin McGuire, executive director of Young Invincibles, an advocacy group focused on amplifying the voices of young adults, which supports debt relief, in a statement. “After years of very little forgiveness through PSLF, one million borrowers free from debt is a massive achievement.”
Several other debt-relief and consumer protection groups praised the Biden administration’s efforts to overhaul PSLF, noting that some congressional Republicans and conservative groups have proposed eliminating the program, in part because it prioritizes public-sector jobs over private-sector employment.
“The Biden-Harris administration has improved more than a million lives by ensuring the bipartisan Public Service Loan Forgiveness program lives up to its promise and that public service workers—teachers, nurses, service members and first responders—are able to get the relief they deserve,” said Aissa Canchola Bañez, policy director of the Student Borrower Protection Center.
The Biden administration has so far forgiven $175 billion in student loans for nearly five million Americans—the biggest group of them through the PSLF program. The announcement Thursday signals that the administration isn’t letting up on its loan forgiveness agenda even as some of its other plans remain on hold because of legal challenges and as the end of Biden’s White House tenure nears.
“I will never stop working to make higher education affordable—no matter how many times Republican elected officials try to stop us,” President Biden said in a statement.
Last week, Biden surprised a kindergarten teacher who was visiting the White House and personally told her that her loans were being discharged.
“You are $46,000 richer,” he told her, according to a video posted on social media. “I just forgave your debt. Done, done, done and you deserve it.”
Because my Administration fixed the Public Service Loan Forgiveness program, Kelly—and over one million Americans—have the breathing room they deserve. pic.twitter.com/FPz9B6vrh7
— President Biden (@POTUS) October 17, 2024
Randi Weingarten, president of the American Federation of Teachers, said in a statement that the Biden-Harris administration has “shown in deeds, not just words, that they have borrowers’ backs.”
“There is much more to be done, but today we give thanks on behalf of the tens of thousands of AFT members and their families who can breathe easier knowing someone is in their corner,” Weingarten added.
In her own statement, Vice President Kamala Harris, who is running for president, echoed Biden and touted the administration’s student debt relief efforts.
“Higher education should be a pathway to economic opportunity—not a lifetime of debt,” Harris said. “That is why I have fought to make education more affordable and reduce the burden of student debt throughout my career.”