Mother Jones illustration; Mandel Ngan/AFP/Getty
On Wednesday, the Biden administration announced it would forgive more than 150,000 borrowers’ student loans, totaling a whopping $1.2 billion. Nearly 153,000 folks who’ve enrolled in the Saving on a Valuable Education (SAVE) repayment plan, borrowed $12,000 or less, and have been making payments for at least 10 years will receive an email from Biden confirming their debt cancellation this week.
“I’ve heard from countless people who have told me that relieving the burden of their student loan debt will allow them to support themselves and their families, buy their first home, start a small business, and move forward with life plans they’ve put on hold,” the email says, according to NBC News.
This recent wave of student loan cancellations has been years in the making for the president, who made debt forgiveness a large part of his platform while campaigning.
In June 2023, the Supreme Court struck down Biden’s original proposal that would’ve erased $430 billion of debt, forcing the president to pivot to a new plan of action: the SAVE program, a smaller debt relief plan that reportedly forgives remaining loan balances after a certain number of years as opposed to the loan balance. According to the White House, Biden’s administration has already canceled student loan debt for at least 3.9 million borrowers under this plan so far. Out of the 30 million people eligible for the SAVE program, there are 7.5 million people currently enrolled. The Department of Education will reportedly reach out and encourage unenrolled borrowers who qualify for debt relief to join the program next week.
