The announcement is the latest in a series of loan forgiveness actions by the administration after the Supreme Court last year struck down Biden's much broader plan.

The announcement is the latest in a series of loan forgiveness actions by the administration after the Supreme Court last year struck down Biden’s much broader plan.

In a new wave of student loan forgiveness, the Biden administration is canceling $5 billion in debt for 74,000 borrowers, many of whom worked in public sector jobs for more than a decade.

President Joe Biden said that 44,000 of Friday’s approved borrowers were having their education debt wiped clean after 10 years of public service, and that those borrowers included teachers, nurses and firefighters. Nearly 30,000 borrowers have worked toward repayment for at least 20 years but “never got the relief they earned through income-driven repayment plans,” Biden said in a statement.

It’s the latest round of loan forgiveness efforts after the Supreme Court struck down the White House’s student loan debt relief plan last year. Since the ruling, the White House has launched a series of smaller relief programs.

  • naught
    8·
    10 months ago

    I thought it was an apt metaphor, if an imperfect one. We can issue relief while also working to address the root of the issue, which is also what I was getting at with the analogy. The doctor treats the dangerous symptoms but that doesn’t mean they aren’t also prescribing antibiotics or that other doctors aren’t working for cures etc.

    That is to say, Biden is pulling the emergency release here with his hands tied. Real reform has to come via legislation, but relieving immediate debt is a good thing for those it impacts.

    Also, it shifts the burden onto “someone else”? Don’t these former students pay taxes? I’ll happily relieve their debt with my tax dollars, but again that does not mean I think this is the final solution. It’s merely a band aid