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Jimmy Williams
The Biden-Harris Administration announced today that approximately $4.5 billion in additional student loan relief has been approved for around 60,000 public service workers across the country.
This comes as part of a broader effort to fix and expand the Public Service Loan Forgiveness (PSLF) Program. The relief adds to the Administration’s historic achievement of approving over $175 billion in total student loan forgiveness, benefiting more than 4.8 million Americans.
U.S. Secretary of Education Miguel Cardona highlighted the importance of the PSLF program, noting that, before President Biden took office, only 7,000 public servants had ever received forgiveness through the program. “From Day One, the Biden-Harris Administration made fixing this broken program a top priority, and today, I’m tremendously proud that over one million teachers, nurses, social workers, veterans, and other public servants have received life-changing loan forgiveness,” Cardona said.
The PSLF program forgives remaining student loan balances for public servants who have made 120 qualifying payments while working in eligible positions. These positions include roles like teachers, nurses, first responders, and veterans, among others. The latest round of relief includes borrowers who benefited from the Administration’s temporary PSLF waiver, which ended in October 2022, and from new regulatory improvements to the program.
Key improvements to the PSLF program include the transition of its full management to the Department of Education via StudentAid.gov, which allows borrowers to manage their PSLF journey, submit forms, and track their progress toward loan forgiveness on one platform. These updates are expected to simplify the process and provide faster processing times for applications.
To ensure that more public servants take advantage of the PSLF program, the Biden-Harris Administration is partnering with major public sector unions like the American Federation of Teachers (AFT) and the National Education Association (NEA). These groups are amplifying the announcement through member outreach and social media campaigns.
The AFT, for example, will encourage its members to attend student debt clinics, aiming to reach an additional 1,000 teachers and nurses by the year’s end. Meanwhile, the NEA’s Student Debt Navigator tool will continue to provide 1-on-1 support for members struggling with PSLF applications.
The Administration also plans to further spread awareness by reaching out to federal employees and state and local public service workers, encouraging them to take advantage of PSLF.
The Biden-Harris Administration has made significant strides in reducing student debt burdens across the board. Alongside PSLF improvements, the Administration has approved $56.5 billion for 1.4 million borrowers through Income-Driven Repayment plans, $28.7 billion for 1.6 million borrowers affected by school closures or fraudulent practices, and $16.2 billion for 572,000 borrowers with permanent disabilities.
As Cardona emphasized, these actions are not only helping public servants become debt-free but also sending a message to college students nationwide that pursuing public service is a viable pathway to financial stability.
