President Joe Biden announced Thursday that he was canceling nearly $6 billion in student loan debt for public service workers.
The Supreme Court ruled in June that Biden’s proposal, which would have empowered the Department of Education to use emergency authority to cancel student debt for nearly 40 million Americans, was unconstitutional.
The administration has rolled out new plans to try and fulfill his campaign promise to cancel student debt for Americans, according to a press release from the White House.
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“From day one of my Administration, I promised to fix broken student loan programs and make sure higher education is a ticket to the middle class, not a barrier to opportunity,” Biden said in a statement. “I won’t back down from using every tool at my disposal to deliver student debt relief to more Americans, and build an economy from the middle out and bottom up.”
The eligible participants in the loan forgiveness include teachers, nurses and firefighters, among others through Public Service Loan Forgiveness, according to the announcement. Student debt has been canceled for over 870,000 public service workers through the administration.
“These public service workers have dedicated their careers to serving their communities, but because of past administrative failures, never got the relief they were entitled to under the law,” Biden said.
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Biden announced in February that he was canceling $1.2 billion in student debt under his Saving on a Valuable Education repayment plan. In order to qualify, applicants who have been repaying their loans “after as little as 10 years” and took out $12,000 or less will be able to get the payments waived.
The president also proposed in March a $12 billion initiative for the fiscal year 2025 to “lower college costs for students, along with several other initiatives aimed at furthering his student loan forgiveness agenda.”
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