The administration of Joe Biden and Kamala Harris announced new student debt cancellations for civil servants on Thursday, ahead of the November 5 election which will pit the Democratic vice-president against former Republican President Donald Trump.
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This relief concerns some 60,000 teachers, nurses, social workers, military personnel, emergency workers, and even firefighters, for a total amount of canceled debt of $4.5 billion, the White House said in a press release.
This “brings the total loan forgiveness approved by the administration to more than $175 billion for more than 4.8 million Americans,” it is specified.
Among them, one million borrowers benefited from the program dedicated to civil servants, for more than 73 billion dollars.
The White House program makes it possible to cancel the remaining balance of the student loan for civil servants who have paid 120 monthly payments, or ten years of repayment.
Tens of millions of Americans have debt from student loans taken out to finance their education, which are often very expensive in the United States.
Kamala Harris promises, on her campaign website, to “work to end the unreasonable burden of student debt and fight to make higher education more affordable, so that college can be a ticket to middle class”.
In a press release from the White House, the vice-president claims to have met during her campaign many civil servants who benefited from student debt cancellation and “who today say they have more money in their pocket to buy a house , rent an apartment, get a car, start a family and save for the future.
The subject of student debt, however, is not among the priorities of his White House rival Donald Trump. The Republican was even critical of such a measure, unfair according to him for those who have already repaid their loan.
Joe Biden had promised since the start of his mandate to reduce this burden, a subject all the more highlighted by the administration as inflation has weighed on the budgets of American households.
The Democratic president unveiled new programs at the start of the year to alleviate the debt of tens of millions of Americans, while the Supreme Court, dominated by conservatives, had invalidated other proposals the previous year aimed at eliminating several hundreds of billions of dollars in student debt.
Nearly 43 million Americans had student loan debt to repay in 2023, according to data from the Education Data Initiative.
