When he stepped aside from the campaign in late July, President Joe Biden vowed to finish the job he began in January 2021, which included delivering on his 2020 campaign promises to cancel student debt.
The President made very good on that promise and presented the receipts on Thursday when he announced an additional $4.5 billion in debt relief as a result of the Department of Education’s fixes to the popular and formerly problematic Public Service Loan Forgiveness Program (PSLF).
President Biden, who has forgiven more education debt than any other President in American history, said that the number of borrowers who'll benefit from the program under his administration now exceeded one million.
“Public service workers – teachers, nurses, firefighters, and more – are the bedrock of our communities and our country,” President Biden said in a statement. “But for too long, the government failed to live up to its commitments.”
The PSLF program was signed into law by President George W. Bush in 2007, only to be plagued by problems that left borrowers believing they were on track to loan cancellation, only to discover at some point that they didn’t qualify on a technicality, such as their loan type or repayment plan.
Borrowers who are eligible for this round of relief should learn of their canceled debt in the coming weeks. The average student loan balance forgiven under PSLF is around $70,000.
In addition to working in the Biden administration on its student loan relief efforts, Vice President Kamala Harris has also promised to strengthen the PSLF program if she wins in November, with a focus on helping more Black men become public school teachers.