Louisiana to get more than $824M for student loan forgiveness through new repayment plan

BATON ROUGE, La. (BRPROUD) -- The Biden-Harris Administration approved students in Louisiana for loan forgiveness on Tuesday evening.

According to the United States Department of Education, about 15,200 borrowers will get income-driven repayment (IDR) forgiveness notifications over the next few weeks.

An IDR plan sets students' monthly student loan amount payment at an affordable amount for the student's income and family size. Also, it offers forgiveness after borrowers have made 240 or 300 monthly payments.

“I have long said that college should be a ticket to the middle class - not a burden that weighs down on families for decades," said President Joe Biden. "My Administration is delivering on that commitment. Starting today, over 800,000 student loan borrowers who have been repaying their loans for 20 years or more will see $39 billion of their loans discharged because of steps my Administration took to fix failures of the past. These borrowers will join the millions of people that my Administration has provided relief to over the past two years – resulting in over $116 billion in loan relief to over 3 million borrowers under my Administration."

The department has started to inform eligible borrowers about the plan via emails from Federal Student Aid. Discharges will start 30 days after the notification date, and anyone can opt out.