Biden cancels nearly $6 billion in student debt for 77,700 public service workers

WASHINGTON (The Hill) - President Joe Biden canceled $5.8 billion in student loan debt for 77,700 public service workers through the Public Service Loan Forgiveness program (PSLF) on Thursday. The workers who will receive the debt include teachers, nurses, and firefighters, among others.

The public service workers receiving loans are set to receive an emailed message with the news, signed by Biden. The relief is a result of fixes that the Biden administration made to the PSLF program, which is a program that Education Sec. Miguel Cardona described in a statement that previously had “logistical troubles and trap doors.”

“Because you’ve pursued a career in public service, you’re on track to get your eligible student loans forgiven in less than a year through Public Service Loan Forgiveness,” the message reads. The Biden administration overall has canceled student debt for over 870,000 public service workers, which is $62.5 billion in debt forgiven, according to the White House’s announcement.

“Today, more than 100 times more borrowers are eligible for PSLF than there were at the beginning of the Administration. The Biden Administration is turning a promise broken under our predecessor into a promise kept,” Cardona said.

In January, the Biden administration announced it would forgive $3.2 billion for those on the PSLF program. At the time, it had forgiven $56.7 billion for 793,400 PSLF borrowers. Overall, as of January, it had forgiven the debt held by more than 3.7 million student loan borrowers through either PSLF or other avenues, such as fixes in income-driven repayment (IDR) options.