In his last few days in office, President Joe Biden has announced additional student loan forgiveness for tens of thousands of students that will leave American taxpayers footing the bill.
In a statement from the White House, Biden announced another 150,000 students will be getting their student loans forgiven, bringing the total number of those who have received student loan forgiveness up to around 5 million.
The 150,000 student borrowers include 85,000 borrowers who attended “schools that cheated and defrauded their students,” 61,000 borrowers with permanent disabilities, and another 6,100 borrowers who are public service workers. In total, 1.7 million students who were “cheated and defrauded” have had their student loans forgiven, as well as 633,000 people living with permanent disabilities, and over 1 million public service workers.
According to CNBC, the student loan debt forgiveness is set to top $183.6 billion in taxpayer funds, with the new announcement alone reportedly costing around $4.2 billion.
“Since day one of my administration, I promised to ensure higher education is a ticket to the middle class, not a barrier to opportunity, and I’m proud to say we have forgiven more student loan debt than any other administration in history,” Biden said.
White House press secretary Karine Jean-Pierre said in a press conference that the relief will “life-changing” for those who have received it.
“This announcement builds on the historic actions of our administration has taken to reduce the burden of student debt, hold bad actors accountable, and fight on behalf of students across the country,” Jean-Pierre said, “Today’s milestone isn’t just a number, it’s life-changing debt relief for five million people and their families who now have more breathing room to buy homes, start small businesses, save for retirement, and much more.”
In 2023, the U.S. Supreme Court blocked the Biden administration from implementing an even larger student debt forgiveness program, which Republican and conservatives reportedly said was an attempt to erase an estimated $430 billion in federal student loan debt.
