(USNewsMag.com) – As the presidential race draws closer, President Joe Biden is quickening his efforts to push through more student loan forgiveness and fulfill his 2020 campaign promises, this time by canceling around $6 billion of debt for up to 78,000 public service employees.
On Thursday, March 21st, the White House announced that 78,000 more public service workers would be entitled to a collective $6 billion student loan forgiveness plan. In a statement, they said that due to “past administrative failures,” these workers who “have dedicated their careers to serving” never received the relief that they are “entitled to under the law.”
Biden will deliver the relief to qualified borrowers using the existing authority of the Department of Education. The latest round of forgiveness brings the total number of public service workers benefitting to over 870,000, which includes firefighters, nurses, and teachers. The White House claims that before Biden took office, only around 7,000 of these workers received student loan forgiveness. The total amount of borrowers offered relief from the current administration is now close to four million.
According to a recent survey, about three out of five American adults believe that the government should help borrowers pay off their exorbitant student loans. Seventy-six percent of those surveyed identified as Democrats, but a surprising 47% were Republicans, showing that there is bipartisan support for the idea.
Biden originally proposed a plan to forgive up to $400 billion for as many as 43 million borrowers, a plan that was struck down last year in the Supreme Court in a 6-3 vote. The plan would have forgiven as much as $20,000 for borrowers and fulfilled his 2020 presidential campaign promise.
Critics of student loan forgiveness point out that canceling debts does not make the debt suddenly vanish but simply moves the burden of that debt from the borrowers to the collective American taxpayers. They argue that it is unfair to force everyone to foot the bill for the financial decisions made by a fraction of the population.
Copyright 2024, USNewsMag.com
