(HorizonPost.com) – The Biden Department of Education announced on Wednesday that it approved an additional nearly $5 billion in student debt bailouts for more than 80,000 borrowers through “fixes” it made to the existing Public Service Loan Forgiveness program, CBS News reported.
The additional $4.8 billion bailout of student debt brings the total amount of student loan debt the Biden administration has bailed out to $132 billion, according to a statement from the White House.
The latest bailout is through the Public Service Loan Forgiveness program, which allows public-sector employees to have the remainder of their student debt bailed out after making payments for ten years or if they have been making payments for at least twenty years but did not get accurate credit for student loan payments.
The president said in the statement that his administration vowed to improve the federal student loan program so higher education would lead to “opportunity and prosperity” rather than “unmanageable burdens of student loan debt.”
The president vowed to continue “using every tool” to ensure those with student debt get the “relief they need to reach their dreams.”
The Biden administration announced in October that it would bail out $9 billion in student debt carried by 125,000 borrowers not long after the 3-year pause on student loan payments ended in September.
The recent student debt bailouts are the Biden administration’s attempt to continue pursuing student debt “forgiveness” despite the Supreme Court ruling in June that invalidated the administration’s plan to bail out student loan debt by making taxpayers cover up to $20,000 in outstanding debt for over 40 million borrowers.
In announcing the latest bailout, the president said his administration would continue to pursue a way around the Supreme Court decision to provide a bailout “to as many borrowers as possible as quickly as possible.”
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