Biden-Harris administration approves $4.28B in student loan relief for public service workers

The Biden-Harris administration announced Friday the approval of an additional $4.28 billion in student debt relief for public service workers.

“Four years ago, the Biden-Harris Administration made a pledge to America’s teachers, service members, nurses, first responders, and other public servants that we would fix the broken Public Service Loan Forgiveness Program, and I’m proud to say that we delivered,” Education Secretary Miguel Cardona said in a press release.

Roughly 55,000 public service workers will have their loans forgiven as a result of the newly approved money. 

The approval brings the total amount of student loan relief money under the administration to almost $180 billion for 4.9 million borrowers.

Last year, over 615,000 public sector workers had their student loans forgiven by the Biden administration.

In August, the Supreme Court declined to allow the Biden Education Department to put into effect a July 2023 rule, known as the SAVE Plan, created to provide debt relief for lower-income borrowers while challenges to the rule continue in the lower courts, according to SCOTUSblog.com.