- Biden has canceled $138 billion for almost $4 million since he took office
- The Supreme Court last year blocked Biden’s first student loan cancellation plan
- The administration is working on other ways to pay off the debt after the court blocked the original plan.
- An educator who benefited from public service loan forgiveness was invited by First Lady Jill Biden to the State of the Union address.
- Republican critics have criticized the effort as unfairly burdening taxpayers.
<!–
<!–
<!– <!–
<!–
<!–
<!–
President Joe Biden has boasted that he has eliminated $138 billion in federal student loan debt since taking office despite the Supreme Court blocking his student loan forgiveness plan.
The president touted debt cancellation during his State of the Union address Thursday night, just feet from where Supreme Court justices sat.
“When I was told I couldn’t universally change the way we borrowed from student loans, I fixed two existing student loan programs to reduce the student debt burden of nearly four million Americans, including nurses, firefighters and others in public service,” Biden said.
Last June, the Supreme Court ruled against Biden’s $400 billion plan to cancel up to $20,000 in student loan debt for millions of Americans. But Biden promised to keep fighting in other ways.
To date, it has canceled student loan debt for nearly 3.9 million borrowers even though the Supreme Court struck down its plan last June.
President Biden touted canceling student loan debt for four million Americans since taking office during his State of the Union address.
Keenan Jones (left), who benefited from the public service loan forgiveness program, was present at the State of the Union address as a guest of First Lady Jill Biden.
Some of the actions the White House has taken include changes to the utility loan forgiveness and income-driven repayment programs.
One of First Lady Jill Biden’s guests at Thursday’s State of the Union address was Keenan Jones, a Minnesota public school educator who benefited from the public service loan forgiveness program and received a commendation from the president. .
‘He has educated hundreds of students so they can go to university. “She can now help, after debt forgiveness, her own daughter go to college,” Biden said.
“This relief is good for the economy because now people can buy a house, start a business, start a family,” the president continued.
During his State of the Union address, Biden also called for a raise for public school teachers, a line that received loud applause from some audience members.
“While we’re at it, I want to give public school teachers a raise,” Bide said.
But while Biden has promised to work to cancel more student loan debt, his efforts have not been without criticism.
Education Secretary Miguel Cardona stands with President Biden at the White House after the Supreme Court blocked the president’s original $400 billion plan to cancel student loan debt.
The Biden administration has been working on several approaches to canceling student loan debt after the Supreme Court blocked the previous plan, including the launch of the SAVE plan and the rulemaking process.
Republicans and some critics have criticized the move to cancel student loan debt, arguing it is a burden on taxpayers who chose not to take out student loans or earn expensive college degrees and an overreach of the president’s authority.
But advocates calling for student loan forgiveness welcomed the president’s inclusion of the topic in his annual address.
“The Biden Administration has canceled the largest amount of student loan debt in American history,” said Mike Pierce, executive director of the Student Borrower Protection Center.
“Behind these numbers are real-life Americans whose lives have been changed for the better thanks to the Biden Administration’s efforts to address the student loan debt crisis,” Pierce continued.
The group said the president must finalize and follow through on his plan.
The administration is working on the rulemaking process to cancel even more student loan debt.
Last month, the White House announced it would begin canceling debt for borrowers enrolled in the new Saving on A Valuable Education (SAVE) plan.
The SAVE plan is an income-driven repayment plan for borrowers who have been making payments for at least ten years and had originally withdrawn $12,000 or less for college.
Going forward, the Department of Education will continue to periodically identify and cancel student loan debt under the plan.
Republicans have tried to block the plan, but they have not had enough numbers in Congress to do so.