The Biden-Harris administration boasted Thursday that $74 billion in student loans had been forgiven for government and public service employees.
The administration announced an additional $4.5 million in student debt was being canceled using the Public Service Loan Forgiveness (PSLF) program, bringing the total to over one million teachers, firefighters, police officers, nurses and other government workers to have debts forgiven since the Biden-Harris administration began, according to a White House press release. The program was first implemented in 2007 to pay off the debt of people who work in public servant roles for at least 10 years, but only 7,000 people utilized the program before Biden took office.
“Higher education should be a pathway to economic opportunity — not a lifetime of debt,” Vice President Kamala Harris said in a separate press release. “That is why I have fought to make education more affordable and reduce the burden of student debt throughout my career.”
The Biden-Harris administration has faced a multitude of roadblocks in their attempts to implement student loan forgiveness programs, with numerous courts striking down the administration’s plans. The Supreme Court ruled in 2023 that Biden’s use of executive power to forgive the debt of nearly 40 million Americans was unconstitutional.
“Our Administration has forgiven over $170 billion in student debt for nearly five million people throughout the country — more than any Administration in history,” Harris continued in her press release. “And while Republican elected officials do everything in their power to block millions of their own constituents from receiving this much needed economic relief, I will continue our work to lower costs, make higher education more affordable, and relieve the burden of student debt.”
Harris plans to “continue working to end the unreasonable burden of student loan debt,” according to her official campaign website. The Department of Education is reaching out to public service workers to urge more employees to take advantage of the program, the announcement stated.
The national debt has increased by over $7 trillion since the Biden-Harris administration took office, exceeding $35 trillion for the first time ever in July.
The White House and the Harris campaign did not immediately respond to the Daily Caller News Foundation’s request for comment.
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