(UnitedVoice.com) – Students who work for the federal government after college can apply to have their student loans discharged. The Public Service Loan Forgiveness program (PSLF) helps everyone from police officers to nurses. Recently, more than 70,000 of them had their balances forgiven by the federal government.
On Thursday, March 21, Education Secretary Miguel Cardona announced that $5.8 billion in loan debt was forgiven for 77,700 public service workers. An email signed by President Joe Biden will go out to those who received forgiveness. The message will say that because the borrower “pursued a career in public service,” they’re on a path to have their balances forgiven sometime this year.
The news brought the total balance for loans forgiven through the PSLF program to $62.5 billion for 870,000 public service workers.
Biden is in the middle of his reelection campaign, and his poll numbers are in the toilet. Americans largely feel he’s too old to serve another term. The 81-year-old is aware of his disadvantages, so he’s using a longstanding program to try to convince people that he’s working for them.
Former President George W. Bush signed the PSLF into law in 2007 as part of the College Reduction and Access Act. The purpose was to encourage students to join the public sector for the good of the American people. There were issues with the way the program was administered that Biden’s administration fixed.
Cardona stated that “more than 100 times more borrowers are eligible” for the program under the current administration than before. He claimed “logistical troubles and trap doors” prevented many borrowers from receiving the forgiveness they were promised.
According to the Department of Education, the total amount of loan forgiveness under the Biden administration is $143.6 billion for almost 4 million people.
Republican lawmakers are currently pushing back on some of that forgiveness out of concerns that the American taxpayers are being saddled with debt that they did not want.
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