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Update: On Thursday, a federal judge in San Francisco granted preliminary approval of a settlement that would cancel the loans of more than 200,000 student borrowers who say they were defrauded by their colleges. It's the latest development in the years-long Sweet v. Cardona, formerly Sweet v. DeVos, lawsuit against the U.S. Department of Education.

The settlement names 153 mostly for-profit colleges, and stipulates that students who attended these schools are entitled to full and automatic relief from their federal student loans. But the Education Department has investigated very few of these schools for wrongdoing. Thursday's ruling allows these schools to take action against the settlement.

"The Department is pleased with the court's preliminary approval of the proposed settlement agreement, which we believe will resolve the litigation in a manner that is fair and equitable for all parties," an Education Department spokesperson tells NPR in an email.

Eileen Connor, director of the Project on Predatory Student Lending and co-counsel for the plaintiffs, said in a statement, "Preliminary approval is an important milestone for this settlement and for our clients, bringing us one step closer to finally delivering certainty to borrowers who have fought long and hard for a fair resolution of their borrower defense claims."

Jason Altmire, the president and CEO of Career Education Colleges and Universities (CECU), a group that represents many of the schools on the list, said, "We are pleased that ... Judge Alsup tentatively ruled that he will allow schools to intervene in Sweet v. Cardona to protect their interests. The parties' proposed settlement has unfairly impugned the reputations of more than 150 schools, all without the basic procedural fairness to which these schools are entitled under the [Education] Department's own regulations."

The settlement is set to be finalized in a hearing scheduled for Nov. 3.

Original report: A fight over when and how the U.S. Department of Education can cancel some federal student loans will soon play out in a federal courthouse on Golden Gate Avenue in San Francisco.

On Aug. 4, a federal judge will decide whether to preliminarily approve a settlement that would erase the debts of 200,000 borrowers who say they were defrauded by their colleges.

The lawsuit, Sweet v. Cardona, centers on a federal rule, known as borrower defense, that allows borrowers to ask the department to erase their student debts if a school has lied to them - about their job prospects, their credits' transferability or their likely salary after graduation.

Tens of thousands of borrowers who say they were ripped off, largely by for-profit colleges, have been in limbo, waiting years to have their claims reviewed. During the Trump administration, borrower advocates sued the department, arguing it deliberately and illegally stopped processing claims and wrongfully denied others without considering the merits of their cases.

If the settlement is approved, those 200,000 borrowers will have more than $6 billion in debts erased, and another 64,000 will have their fraud claims reconsidered on the merits.

"This momentous proposed settlement will deliver answers and certainty to borrowers who have fought long and hard for a fair resolution of their borrower defense claims after being cheated by their schools and ignored or even rejected by their government," says Eileen Connor, director of the Project on Predatory Student Lending and co-counsel for the plaintiffs.

The settlement also has its critics, who argue it's a brazen attack on dozens of largely for-profit colleges and could be used, by the department, to erase the debts of many more borrowers beyond the lawsuit.

The settlement names schools that have allegedly done wrong, but haven't been investigated

The settlement has stirred the fury of for-profit college leaders and advocates. The source of that anger is this list of 153 mostly for-profit colleges.

Borrowers who are part of the class action suit and who attended any of those 153 schools are entitled, the settlement says, to full and automatic relief from their federal student loans.

The settlement says these schools were included because of strong signs they had committed "substantial misconduct ... whether credibly alleged or in some instances proven."

Just because somebody accuses a school of fraud doesn't necessarily mean that it happened.

That doesn't sit well with some higher education experts.

"Just because somebody accuses a school of fraud doesn't necessarily mean that it happened," says Carlo Salerno, senior economist at Ellucian and a longtime industry observer. "[A school] could, for example, inadvertently list a graduation rate that was wrong. Maybe it wasn't wrong because they were trying to be deceptive as much as maybe there was a data error or a clerical error."

The settlement's critics also point out that the Education Department has investigated very few of these schools - let alone confirmed wrongdoing.

In a legal memo protesting the settlement, attorneys for Everglades College, Inc., whose schools are listed among the 153, complain that, "in most instances, all the Department has before it are unproven and yet-to-be-adjudicated allegations, but the agency is nonetheless deeming schools guilty without further process or explanation."

"This is a farce," the memo says.

In another legal protest of the proposed settlement, The Chicago School of Professional Psychology (TCSPP) "vigorously denies these accusations and is eager to submit contrary evidence and argument to this Court that the Parties plainly will not."

Many of the schools on the list have been the target of federal or state-level consumer protection inquiries, though not all. Some have settled without acknowledging wrongdoing. Most have never been the subject of enforcement by the department, or lost access to federal student loans.

"We have many concerns," says Jason Altmire, the president and CEO of Career Education Colleges and Universities (CECU), a group that represents many of the schools on the list.

"It does not appear that the department has done an individual review of each of these claims. In fact, they have themselves said that they did not do that," Altmire says.

One reason is practical: The department has an enormous backlog of complaints to process. The whole point of the lawsuit and settlement is to finally and efficiently do that.

In a statement, Education Secretary Miguel Cardona said the department was "pleased" to have reached an agreement "that will deliver billions of dollars of automatic relief to approximately 200,000 borrowers and that we believe will resolve plaintiffs' claims in a manner that is fair and equitable for all parties."

And there's no doubt, Altmire says, many of these borrowers deserve help.

"Any student who has been part of a school that has intentionally misrepresented information to that student, and the student has been harmed by that, without question, that student should be first in line to have their claims heard," says Altmire. But, "without any kind of individual review, we wonder how you can make a determination whether or not a student has been harmed."

Altmire says some of the schools on the list had no idea they were included - or that borrower defense complaints had even been filed against them.

"We see that as a problem," Altmire says, because it's causing schools "reputational damage."

Some of the schools on the list are still enrolling students

Among the still-open schools on the settlement's "substantial misconduct" list is the popular University of Phoenix, which listed its degreed enrollment in 2020 at nearly 84,000 students.

In 2019, Phoenix agreed to cancel $141 million in debts owed to the school and pay $50 million back to students after the Federal Trade Commission alleged the school had used deceptive advertising.

But, by settling, the university avoided litigation. In a statement after the settlement, it said it "continues to believe it has acted appropriately and has admitted no wrongdoing."

Its inclusion in the Sweet settlement, along with other open schools, feels to Altmire like the department is using borrower defense "to weaponize against the [for-profit college] sector."

University of Phoenix did not respond to multiple NPR requests for comment.

Everglades and Keiser Universities - both part of Everglades College, Inc. - are also open. In the Everglades legal memo protesting the settlement, the organization says it didn't know students had filed claims against its schools.

"The Department's inclusion of [Everglades and Keiser] is already causing reputational harm, as third parties are treating it like a neutral finding of wrongdoing by the schools, rather than a litigation concession cooked up in a secret deal with the schools' accusers," the memo says.

Salerno, too, worries about the message this sends.

"While I'm sympathetic to the department trying to clear the decks ... there is a lot of inadvertent harm that comes from telling current students ... that, you know, your degree may be a sham, even before you've received one or tried to get employed with it."

What it looks like when a college defrauds its students

Borrower Alicia Davis wants to be clear: Her educational experience was a sham.

She remembers the Florida Metropolitan University salesperson who assured her, back in 2006, that the school was a great fit.

"She hustled me good," Davis recalls. " 'You're guaranteed to get a job!' "

But after enrolling, Davis quickly realized the school had little to offer her. And when she transferred, she was surprised to hear her credits were worthless.

"That's when I realized, I was like, 'OK, there's something really wrong with this.' "

Davis was furious and refused to pay back the federal student loans she had taken out.

"I was like, 'Take me to court, I'm not paying you a penny.' "

Ultimately, it was Davis who took the Education Department to court - as one of seven named plaintiffs in Sweet v. DeVos, now Sweet v. Cardona.

Unrelated to the case, the Biden administration finally processed and approved Davis' borrower defense claim earlier this year. In February her Florida Metropolitan debts were erased.

"I cried at the restaurant we were at with all these tourists," Davis remembers, "and they were looking at me like I was crazy. But, you know, at that moment, I realized that all my hard work and everything - I was finally free of this debt that has been haunting me for 15 years."

Davis says she hopes the Sweet settlement will be approved so the other borrowers in the lawsuit can experience the same joy, the same freedom.

The settlement may include a backdoor to broader student loan cancellation

Because this suit was triggered by the department's refusal to review claims, the settlement offers a timed guarantee to any borrower who files a claim between when the settlement was announced on June 22, 2022, and when it's finalized (if it is).

Eileen Connor, co-counsel for the plaintiffs, says these borrowers "will have a deadline" - a three-year review period. "And if the department isn't able to resolve their borrower defense applications within that time frame, their loans will be canceled."

It doesn't matter where these borrowers went to school or if they can prove they were defrauded. If the department takes more than three years to review their cases, their loans will be erased.

There's no reason to believe the department won't meet this timeline - as part of the settlement, it has committed to processing claims more efficiently. But, in its legal memo, Everglades College, Inc., suggests the department could choose to drag its feet to achieve broader loan cancellation.

"If the Department of Education encourages every loan holder in America to submit a borrower-defense application prior to this Court's final approval of the Proposed Settlement, within three years the Department of Education can unilaterally cancel ALL federal student loan debt - and refund prior payments on student debt - by simply not acting," the memo warns.

But Connor says "the suggestion that this settlement is a disguised debt-cancellation pact ... is either a deliberate misrepresentation or an embarrassing misunderstanding of basic facts."

According to a department spokesperson, as of early July, the Department had already received more than 60,000 borrower defense applications since the parties agreed to the proposed settlement.

Borrower advocates say there's still one thing missing: accountability

The Biden administration appears much more inclined than the Trump administration to cancel the debts of students who say they were defrauded.

Earlier this month, the Education Department unveiled a rewrite of the borrower defense rule - to streamline it and, in many ways, lower the burden of proof for borrowers.

What's less clear is the department's willingness to investigate bad actors and hold them accountable.

"The fact that this settlement is necessary represents a failure by the government to have actively policed these institutions better in the first place," says Dan Zibel, chief counsel and co-founder of the borrower advocacy group Student Defense.

The fact that this settlement is necessary represents a failure by the government to have actively policed these institutions better in the first place.

"We're not necessarily addressing the root of the problem," says Dominique Baker, a professor of education policy at Southern Methodist University. " If you know that an institution has done enough wrong that, if someone applies to get their student loans waived and you're going to automatically approve it, a real question is: Why would you ever allow someone to take another student loan from them?"

What's more, Connor says, there's nothing in the settlement that commits the Education Department to investigate any of the schools on its misconduct list.

Real accountability would require that the department officially investigate a school, gather evidence and make its case while also allowing the school to defend itself - a kind of due process that some for-profit college advocates and experts welcome.

"Schools deserve their day in court," Salerno says.

In response to questions from NPR about its enforcement efforts, the department, through a spokesperson, says it cannot comment on institutional oversight activities, program reviews, or investigations but that it reestablished the Federal Student Aid Office of Enforcement last fall and has filled key positions in the areas of borrower defense, strategy, and investigations.

"Our actions to date demonstrate our renewed focus on holding schools accountable for putting students' interest first," the department spokesperson tells NPR.

For proven bad actors, the department could hold executives personally liable for the costs of their fraud. It could also cut schools off from the federal student loan program - a likely death sentence for any school. Otherwise, what's to prevent more students from being defrauded?

Think of it this way, Zibel says: The Department of Education is standing at the edge of a hole, helping defrauded borrowers climb out by canceling their student debts. Meanwhile, on the other side, stand a host of potentially fraudulent schools, continuing to push more borrowers in.

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200k student borrowers are closer to getting their loans erased after judge's ruling

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Update: On Thursday, a federal judge in San Francisco granted preliminary approval of a settlement that would cancel the loans of more than 200,000 student borrowers who say they were defrauded by their colleges. It's the latest development in the years-long Sweet v. Cardona, formerly Sweet v. DeVos, lawsuit against the U.S.

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Student loan forgiveness advocates rallied outside the White House last month to celebrate President Biden's announcement to cancel a portion of the education debt held by millions of Americans. (Shawn Thew/EPA-EFE/Shutterstock)

Patricia Young made the last payment on her daughter's federal student loans on Aug. 8.

Then on Aug. 24, President Biden announced a one-time forgiveness program that will wipe out up to $10,000 in federal student loan debt and up to $20,000 for Pell Grant recipients for individuals who earn $125,000 or less per year, or less than $250,000 for married couples.
If you have a personal finance question for Washington Post columnist Michelle Singletary, please call 1-855-ASK-POST (1-855-275-7678)
Young, of Clinton, Md., doesn't have any regrets about paying off the loans.

Who has student loan debt in America?

She took advantage of the payment pauses enacted during the pandemic to pay off $12,000 in loans interest-free. Although there had been discussions at the time about loan forgiveness, Young said she wasn't waiting to see if it would happen.

"I just said, let me keep throwing money at the debt and get it down."

Young's daughter graduated from theUniversity of Maryland Baltimore County in 2019 and did postgraduate work at the American Musical and Dramatic Academy in New York, graduating last year.

Like many other borrowers who could afford to continue making payments, Young saw a tremendous opportunity to aggressively pay down her daughter's education debt.Despite the pause, more than 9 million borrowers with Education Department-held loans made payments between April 2020 and June 2022, according to a Department of Education spokesperson.

Now that the loan forgiveness plan has been announced, some regret their aggressive debt reduction. They are taking advantage of a loophole allowing them to claw back their payments and put the refunded loan amount back on the lenders' books so they can then apply for forgiveness under Biden's plan.

What borrowers think of Biden's student-loan forgiveness plan

While they took advantage of the zero-interest relief, these borrowers now want to benefit from this newest loan forgiveness.

It might work like this. Say you paid off $10,000. You call up your loan servicer and ask for a refund for the $10,000. You get the money back, and your loan is reinstated to $10,000. Then you apply for forgiveness under the Biden program.

What people are doing is technically allowed. Borrowers have one year to apply for a refund for payments made during the payment pause that began on March 13, 2020, according to the Education Department.

Republicans are readying lawsuits to block Biden's student debt plan

What's been killing folks is how student loan interest can increase the loan balance over time. Interest that is not paid through forbearance or deferral gets added to the principal, and then interest is charged on the new, larger balance.

Every time the government extended the student loan pause program, Young said it allowed her to pay down more of the principal. She decided to pay $300 per pay period - $600 per month. With the interest rate on the loans at zero percent, all her payments went directly to reducing the loan principal.

After her two July payments, the balance was down to $208.18, which she paid in August.

Student loan servicers inundated with refund requests after forgiveness news

Young said she's already benefited from the covid emergency relief.

"The one good thing that came out of covid was that they paused the interest payments," she said. "Well, that gave me time to pay back the money."

Many people requesting refunds intending to take advantage of Biden's loan forgiveness are not struggling financially. They didn't lose their job during the pandemic. They had more disposable income because pandemic shutdowns reduced their spending on eating out or other discretionary expenditures, freeing up money to pay off their loans.

Calculate how much of your student loan debt can be forgiven

As my grandmother Big Mama used to say, you can be right and be wrong.

Should you take advantage of the refund loophole?

Yes, request a refund if you truly need it.

But, as a taxpayer who will be footing the bill for this new loan forgiveness, I appreciate Young's decision.

"My daughter used the money to get the education. She got a degree. I don't really feel like I should even go through the process of trying to take advantage of the relief that they are giving people now," Youngsaid. "I could pay back the money, and it was a blessing that I was able to do it. I was in the position financially that I could pay it back."

By the way, just because you made payments and are seeking a refund doesn't mean your loan is eligible for cancellation.

"They would still need to meet the income threshold of below $125,000 for individuals or $250,000 for married borrowers," the Education Department spokesperson said.

Biden student debt plan fuels broader debate over forgiving borrowers

There's so much discourse over Biden's loan forgiveness plan. Some people are bitter that borrowers are getting their loans forgiven. Others feel the forgiveness is fair after struggling for years under an oppressive amount of debt.

Young is empathetic to both viewpoints. She may not get everything she's entitled to, but she's satisfied with the relief shehas received.

"For those who do qualify and will have a portion of their debt forgiven, I couldn't be happier for them because I know what it feels like to have some of that burden lifted from your budget," Young said.

"The forgiveness is a good start but, in my opinion, the entire student loan process needs to be revamped so that the payments do not become such a burden. But that's another conversation for another day."

Michelle Singletary on inflation and personal finance
If you have a personal finance question for Washington Post columnist Michelle Singletary, please call 1-855-ASK-POST (1-855-275-7678).
Recession-proof your life: The tsunami of troubling economic news is taking its toll on consumers, investors, borrowers, and would-be homeowners. Thereare some practical steps you can take to help shield you from the worst that could lie ahead.

Credit card debt: It is the worst debt to carry in good times. Here are seven ways to lower your credit card debt in light of this latest Fed rate hike and additional increases that probably are coming soon.

Watch: Michelle Singletary gives seven tips to protect yourself whether a recession is coming or not.

Money moves: With the stock market crashing and inflation rising, people are desperately looking for a place to park their extra cash. If you've got money sitting around earning a little more than 1 percent, if that much, I bonds are an attractive deal.

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Advice | She paid off student debt days before relief announced. She has no regrets.

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Patricia Young made the last payment on her daughter's federal student loans on Aug. 8. Then on Aug. 24, President Biden announced a one-time forgiveness program that will wipe out up to $10,000 in federal student loan debt and up to $20,000 for Pell Grant recipients for individuals who earn $125,000 or less per year, or less than $250,000 for married couples.

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The Biden administration is nearing its deadline to announce what it will do about federal student debt. In part this is because the latest freeze on student debt repayment ends on August 31. Also, at least in part, this is because progressives are demanding cancellation. But pushy progressives and a freeze that should have ended long‐​ago do not make a policy wise. Indeed, there are at least five major reasons mass cancellation is a terrible idea.
1. Helping the Winners
People who have attended, and especially graduated from, college are typically set for a huge increase in their lifetime earnings. As seen below, the average person with a bachelor's degree will earn an estimated $1.2 million more over their lifetime than someone topping out at a high school diploma. For someone with a graduate degree - and student debt is disproportionately taken on for graduate study - that earnings premium rises to between $1.6 and $3.1 million.

In addition to huge earnings increases, people who attended college have much greater job security than those who did not, and this benefit was especially stark during COVID-19 lockdowns. In April 2020, the unemployment rate only hit 8.4 percent for college graduates, versus 17.6 percent for Americans topping out at a high school diploma and 21.1 percent for workers with less than that.

There is no reason that people in such a good financial position should not repay taxpayers, roughly two‐​thirds of whom do not have bachelor's degrees.
2. Regressive
We have seen various cancellation proposals floated by different people, but one of the most recent was reported from the Biden White House: $10,000 cancellation with an income cap of $150,000 individually and $300,000 for joint filers. The table below is an estimate for the cancellation amounts and distribution of that plan by income quintile (and decile for top earners).

As highlighted in the graph below, much more of that aid would go to the highest quintile of earners than the lowest - $54.3 billion versus $33.8 billion. That's because higher‐​income people are more likely to borrow, and borrow more, for college than lower‐​income.
3. Huge Cost to Taxpayers
The $10,000 plan discussed in reason number two would cost taxpayers - the people who funded all these student loans whether they liked it or not - an estimated $260 billion. $50,000 per borrower with no cap would cost taxpayers around $1 trillion. And forgiving the whole amount would cost taxpayers more than $1.6 trillion.
4. Even Worse Price Inflation
The biggest problem in higher education is its incredibly expanding price. As seen below, inflation‐​adjusted tuition, fees, room and board at four‐​year, nonprofit private colleges ballooned from $27,720 in the 1990-91 school year to $$51,690 in the 2021-22 school year, an 86 percent increase. At public four‐​year institutions it rose from $10,430 to $22,690, a 118 percent ballooning. It was accompanied by a huge increase in aid per student.

Much research has shown that aid fuels college price inflation, including a Federal Reserve Bank of New York finding that for every 1 dollar increase in "subsidized" student loans, colleges raise their prices 60 cents. Mass cancellation would incentivize much greater inflation as neither colleges nor prospective students would believe future loans would have to be repaid, blowing the lid off of prices.
5. Unconstitutional
The Constitution gives Congress, not the president, the power of the purse. A president unilaterally cancelling up to $1.6 trillion would be a rank violation of that power. Of course, the federal student loan programs are themselves unconstitutional. The federal government only has the specific, enumerated powers given to it by the Constitution, and the authority to fund education, either directly or through loans, is nowhere among them. Cancellation would thus be a double violation of the Constitution.

Some cancellation advocates argue that Congress gave the president the power to cancel all loans in the Higher Education Act. But not only is the constitutional ability for Congress to give away its power highly dubious, the Higher Education Act does not authorize blanket cancellation, only forgiveness under specific loan repayment programs.
Conclusion
Mass cancellation would be a blatantly unconstitutional giveaway of taxpayer money to the people who arguably need it the least, and it would exacerbate the biggest problem in higher education.

There's nothing to like about that.

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Top Five Reasons Federal Student Debt Cancellation Is a Bad Idea

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Mass cancellation would be a blatantly unconstitutional giveaway of taxpayer money to the people who arguably need it the least, and it would exacerbate the biggest problem in higher education.

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Kimberley Strassel is a member of the editorial board for The Wall Street Journal. She writes editorials, as well as the weekly Potomac Watch political column, from her base in Alaska.

Ms. Strassel joined Dow Jones & Co. in 1994, working in the news department of The Wall Street Journal Europe in Brussels, and then in London. She moved to New York in 1999 and soon thereafter joined the Journal's editorial page, working as a features editor, and then as an editorial writer. She assumed her current position in 2005.

Ms. Strassel, a 2014 Bradley Prize recipient, is a regular contributor to Sunday political shows, including CBS's "Face the Nation," Fox News Sunday, and NBC's "Meet the Press." She is the author of "The Intimidation Game: How the Left Is Silencing Free Speech," which chronicles recent attacks on conservative nonprofits, businesses and donors.

An Oregon native, Ms. Strassel earned a bachelor's degree in Public Policy and International Affairs from Princeton University. She lives in Alaska with her three children.

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Opinion | Student Debt Forgiveness Is Biden's Bluto Moment

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Kimberley Strassel is a member of the editorial board for The Wall Street Journal. She writes editorials, as well as the weekly Potomac Watch political column, from her base in Alaska. Ms. Strassel joined Dow Jones & Co. in 1994, working in the news department of The Wall Street Journal Europe in Brussels, and then in London.

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Speaking to Fox News Digital by phone on Thursday about the new Biden administration student loan handout plan announced this week, former Secretary of Education William Bennett was very clear.

"This is a terrible, terrible, idiotic idea," he said.

"I'll just tick off a few things," Bennett said about the new plan and how it will affect Americans.

"There's the inflationary effect of this - and I'll leave that to the economists and others. But almost everyone, including former Obama administration officials, indicate that this will add a lot of fuel to the fire in terms of inflation," he said.
AMERICANS ALREADY REACTING TO BIDEN'S STUDENT LOAN HANDOUT PLAN: 'HIGHLY SUSPICIOUS'
On that point, a Penn Wharton Budget Model has found that a one-time maximum debt forgiveness of $10,000 for borrowers making less than $125,000 will cost around $300 billion for taxpayers. Some economists argue this will spur inflation. The $300 billion adds up to about the amount of deficit reduction included in the so-called Inflation Reduction Act passed earlier this month.

Also, the nation's federal student debt now tops $1.6 trillion after ballooning for years. More than 43 million Americans have federal student debt, with almost a third owing less than $10,000 and more than half owing less than $20,000, according to the latest federal data.

The national debt, according to the Treasury Department, is currently $30.7 trillion.

William Bennett continued, "So that money that was just forgiven will go into the economy and heat things up - and prices will go up. Prices will go up for everyone."

"Also, those hurt the most by this will be the people who have the least - and who will not have the benefits of the student forgiveness plan."

"A couple categories here," he added. "One, all the people who didn't go to college or graduate from college. And second - and this point has been kind of neglected - are minorities.
PARENTS WONDER: DOES BIDEN'S STUDENT LOAN HANDOUT PLAN INCLUDE COLLEGE LOANS TAKEN OUT BY MOMS AND DADS?
"We've seen a decline in the numbers of Black enrollment in higher education over the last five or 10 or so years," said Bennett. "So this is going to fall disproportionately on minority groups."

Bennett cited, for starters, a study done at the University of California, Santa Cruz - a working paper of Stanford University's Institute for Economic Policy Research. Researchers found that California community colleges experienced a significant decrease in enrollments since the onset of the COVID-19 pandemic - "and these enrollment decreases are particularly apparent among Black and Latinx students," the group found.

"There's a bit of a ruse here - 'Well, these are people who are stuck at under $125,000 in terms of their income,' according to the Biden people. Well, no, they're not."

"Although all racial and ethnic groups experienced large decreases in enrollment during the pandemic," the California study said, "Black students experienced the largest effects. Black enrollment dropped by 5 percent in spring 2019, 14 percent in fall 2020, 12 percent in spring 2021 and 7 percent in fall 2021."

And "from fall 2019 to fall 2020, enrollment dropped by 20 percent among Black students," the study also found, as noted in The Journal of Blacks in Higher Education.

Bennett also pointed to a fact sheet from the Postsecondary National Policy Institute (PNPI), which noted, in part, that "while Black students have made enrollment gains over the past two decades, there has been less progress in closing the degree attainment gap."

Said Bennett of the Biden student loan handout plan: "So it is disproportionately favoring high earners who are White and who are earning these degrees and holding this student debt. It's favoring people who have gone to college or graduate school - and there is a higher population of Whites in that group than across the population as a whole."

He added, "Blacks have dropped out of college or have not attended college, in terms of showing smaller numbers over the last few years - so they will not get [as much] benefit from this."
DAVE RAMSEY REACTS TO BIDEN STUDENT LOAN HANDOUT: 'OBVIOUS POLITICAL PLOY'
"The other interesting and tricky thing on this is the income level cutoff of the plan - the $125,000 for an individual and the $250,000 for a couple," said Bennett.

"The $250,000 combined income for a couple is not so bad - that's living pretty well in America.

"They may be at a fairly low income level now - but they're just starting out. They're going to reap the benefits of their college education in the future."

"But remember that these people are making this amount, of $125,000 or less, at the start of their careers. At the beginning. These are basically people who are still young in their 20s or their 30s. They're going to make a lot more money as they go along.

"So there's a bit of a ruse here - 'Well, these are people who are stuck at under $125,000 in terms of their income,' according to the Biden people. Well, no, they're not. We don't know exactly, but there is a very strong argument that these people may have just finished college or may be in graduate school, so they're early on in their professional careers.

"And they're going to make a lot more money in the future. They may be at a fairly low income level now - but they're just starting out. They're going to reap the benefits of their college education in the future.

"That's one thing about higher education that most people agree on - you're going to make more money overall if you have those college degrees than if you don't, whether that's fair or not," he said.

"That should be taken into account," Bennett said. "So why favor forgiveness for people who have done that?"

"We just keep chasing our tail. Keep increasing the grants, the loans - and they will keep increasing the charges. As soon as the money's there, they will find a way to charge you for it."

He continued, "The other thing is - and I was delighted to see myself quoted this week from back in 1987, for goodness' sake - as soon as you forgive these loans for higher ed, the colleges and universities will raise their tuition and fees. And they will.

"College charges and university charges have gone up so much higher than the rate of inflation - and we will see another increase now by the people who run these institutions."
COLLEGE GRADUATES OUTRAGED OVER BIDEN'S STUDENT LOAN HANDOUTS: DOESN'T 'FIX THE SYSTEMIC PROBLEM'
Bennett added, "We just keep chasing our tail. Keep increasing the grants, the loans - and they will keep increasing the charges. As soon as the money's there, they will find a way to charge you for it.

"Americans will do anything to get their kids into college and through college. And that obviously benefits the institutions."

So what about all the people who paid off their loans and how they feel about this?

"No kidding. I'm one of them," replied Bennett.

"You're violating a basic contract agreement and obligation - when you take on debt, you should pay it back. And you're not helping people who did the honorable thing."

"I got out of school in 1970 - I owed $24,000, which is a lot of money today. And the first thing I did was I paid off my loans. I just didn't like the idea of this debt hanging over me.

"A lot of people did that," he added. "And what do they [the administration] say about this?"

"The people who paid down their debt - they get nothing out of this. The people who never had debt - they get nothing out of this. The welders, the hairdressers, so many others - they get nothing.

"So here you are, making a move that's very bad for the economy, in terms of inflation," said Bennett.

"You're favoring an already advantaged class over others," he said.

"You're violating a basic contract agreement and obligation - when you take on debt, you should pay it back. You signed the paper - you took it on. And you're not helping people who did the honorable thing."
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The "moral hazard here is pretty obvious," Bennett said.

"It's a terrible, terrible, idiotic idea," he said of the student loan handout plan.

And "the only reason we can think that a person would advance this," Bennett said, "would be for political purposes. They're hoping that the people who get this [loan handout] will vote for Biden. That's the only conclusion you can draw."
Brooke Singman of Fox News Digital contributed reporting to this article.

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William Bennett on Biden's student loan handout plan: 'Terrible, idiotic idea'

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Speaking to Fox News Digital by phone on Thursday about the new Biden administration student loan handout plan announced this week, former Secretary of Education William Bennett was very clear. "This is a terrible, terrible, idiotic idea," he said. "I'll just tick off a few things," Bennett said about the new plan and how it will affect Americans.

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A White House decision to cancel up to $10,000 (£8,500) in student loan debt is drawing mixed reactions across the US.

When Matthew Henderson graduated from Loyola University, he had limited his borrowing as much as possible.

Keen to pay off the roughly $20,000 he owed the federal government for his three-year programme, he began looking for work.

But it was May 2020, a pandemic was raging and nobody was hiring.

The political science and history major opted to further his education with a master's in legal studies from Washington University in St Louis. It's a decision that has cost him dearly.

"Even though it was only an accelerated one-year programme, it still cost about $60,000, which was pretty much funded entirely through student loans," he said.

"I suddenly went from a potentially payable amount to an exorbitant amount of debt."

Mr Henderson, 23, is among the one in five Americans - or roughly 45 million people - who hold student loans. Together they owe the government a combined total of $1.6tn in debt and interest payments, according to the Federal Reserve.

As debts have ballooned, student advocacy groups have begged for relief. On Wednesday, President Joe Biden announced he will wipe out up to $10,000 per borrower for those who earn less than $125,000 each year.

For Mr Henderson, the move is "a great step, but I'm not certain it's the best he [Biden] could have done".

"I hoped to see him forgive up to $50,000," he concedes, nodding to more ambitious Democratic Party proposals turned down by the president.

The Indiana native argues the government is quick to "bail out" corporations, as it did in the wake of the 2008 financial crisis and more recently during the pandemic, but is reluctant to invest in its citizens.

"At some point, we have to invest in the future of the US workforce and the youth of America," he said.

But, with more than half of all student borrowers currently owing $20,000 or less, and about a third owing under $10,000, the White House's actions do come as a major source of relief to some.

Bessy Clarke, 30, has made monthly payments on her $30,000 in loans - but high interest rates have left her "barely making a dent" in her debt load.

"It's very defeating to pay monthly and still see no progress on my balance," said the tech industry worker from New Orleans, Louisiana.

Cancelling a portion of her loans is a necessary step in the right direction, she claims.

"Student loans have been the biggest burden on millennials and will be for the following generations as well. It prevents people my age from saving for a house or saving for retirement."

Sam Wright, a young father in Bluffdale, Utah, agrees.

Both he and his wife are still paying down college loans, as they raise their first child.

"It requires us to have two jobs - and put her in day-care," the 32-year-old said. "If we didn't have the loans, it's much more likely one of us could work part-time."

Mr Wright was the first in his family to attend college. He claims he was so naïve about the experience that he paid for his first semester with the cash he had saved up from a summer job.

"That was the trope handed down from all the baby boomers," he said. "Work hard and pay it off."

While glad that a significant portion of his loans are to be forgiven, he warns it's simply "putting a band-aid over a larger issue".

"The fact that the government is so willing to lend money to students who are going to expensive institutions, where the price has gone up so drastically - that hasn't been addressed at all."

Nicholas Nolan Judd, a 20-year-old from Aiken, South Carolina, attends college at the University of Glasgow, a decision he made in large part to avoid taking out loans.

With access to a partial scholarship and tuition benefits, he said, "we did all the numbers and it was actually way cheaper to go overseas to a well-ranked university than the state schools."

"When I tell [my peers] that, at a US university of about the same calibre, I'd be paying $70,000 [per year], their jaws drop every single time," he noted.

According to him, while British universities remain focused on the academic experience, the American model has "more of a 'college culture' focus, with large football stadiums and other accessories".

Forgiving loans therefore is "like throwing money onto a fire that's burning," Mr Judd said. "The money is not going to solve the actual crisis, which is over-inflated tuition costs."

Some critics of the debt cancellation plan say it is merely a politically expedient move to appease voters on the left ahead of November's midterm elections.

"The best way to win someone's vote is to give them a handout," Dominic Bashford, 25, told the BBC.

After graduating from Bowling Green State University in 2019, he accumulated about $22,000 in debt.

But Mr Bashford, who describes himself as a libertarian, views debt as a form of servitude, so he started planning early on how to "break free" from the government.

In addition to his job at a brokerage firm in the grocery industry, he worked weekends delivering pizza for Domino's and cut nearly every major cost in his life.

"I sacrificed my social life and creature comforts, and I really lived like a miser," he said.

Mr Bashford planned to pay off what he owed within five years. Instead his plan saw him do it in two years, making his final payment last August.

He believes the move to forgive loans serves as a disincentive for responsible behaviour.

"Just like how it is immoral for taxpayers to be forced to pay for corporations' bad financial decision making, it's immoral for taxpayers to be forced to pay for individuals' bad financial planning," he said.

Without solving the root causes of the debt crisis, he added, "in 10 years' time, we're going to be back in the same position that we're in now".

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Student debt forgiveness: Relief for some, 'immoral' to others

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A White House decision to cancel up to $10,000 (£8,500) in student loan debt is drawing mixed reactions across the US. When Matthew Henderson graduated from Loyola University, he had limited his borrowing as much as possible. Keen to pay off the roughly $20,000 he owed the federal government for his three-year programme, he began looking for work.

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White House officials say President Biden's decision to cancel between $10,000 and $20,000 in student debt for millions of Americans is fully paid for because of a drop in the federal deficit, an argument that suggests the full cost of the policy will just be piled on top of the national debt.

Fox News Digital has reached out to the White House multiple times over the past week about how it plans to pay for the student loan handout or if future tax hikes will be necessary.

The White House now says the handout is "fully paid for" through deficit reduction that is already occurring.

"It is paid for and far more by the amount of deficit reduction that we're already on track for this year," said Bharat Ramamurti, deputy director of the National Economic Council.
STUDENT LOAN HANDOUT PLAN FROM BIDEN: 10 STRONG REACTIONS FROM MOMS, DADS AND MORE

"We're on track for $1.7 trillion in deficit reduction this year. That means, practically speaking, compared to the previous year, 1.7 trillion more dollars are coming into the Treasury than are going out. And we're using a portion of that - a very small portion of it - to provide relief to middle-class families, consistent with the president's plan."

Economists say the White House's comments and unwillingness to outline offsets for the student debt handout, like tax increases or budget cuts, signals it plans to just pile the money onto the $726 billion federal deficit.
FORMER EDUCATION SEC. BETSY DEVOS ON STUDENT LOAN HANDOUT: '100% ILLEGAL'
"They're just looking for any story they can tell that lets them get away from the fact that they're making the nation's finances worse," said Marc Goldwein, senior policy director at the nonpartisan Committee for a Responsible Federal Budget. "This is going to worsen the deficit. There is no way to dance around it."

Under Biden, the deficit has shrunk mainly because Congress has opted not to appropriate trillions in temporary coronavirus spending as it did at the start of the pandemic in 2020. Economists say the White House is arguing that the shrinking deficit gives the administration more money to spend on programs, like the student loan handout. But this means it won't go to debt reduction instead, forcing future taxpayers to pick up the tab.

"The analogy is a family going into debt for a $100,000 medical emergency, and the next year buying a $50,000 sports car and claiming that it's 'free' because they are no longer spending $100,000 per year on the medical emergency," said Brian Riedl, a senior fellow in economics at the center-right Manhattan Institute.

Biden last week announced plans to forgive $10,000 in student debt for borrowers making less than $125,000 annually. Pell Grant recipients will receive $20,000 in debt handouts, provided their income is below the $125,000 threshold. Administration officials claim that no individual or household in the top 5% of earners will benefit from the decision.

The White House is also extending a pause on student loan payments through the end of the year. Coinciding with the announcement is a new Education Department proposal that allows borrowers to cap undergraduate loan repayment at 5% of their monthly income, adding to the cost to taxpayers of the handout.

Administration officials claim that the cost of Biden's student loan handout cannot be fully accounted for since it's unclear how many borrowers will opt to take advantage of the opportunity. They say that it remains unclear how many individuals would have paid back the full amount of their loans over time anyway.

"All of this, as when it comes to costs, will also depend on how many of the loans canceled were actually expected to be repaid," said White House press secretary Karine Jean-Pierre.

But others were able to come up with estimates. The National Taxpayers Union Foundation issued an analysis earlier this week estimating that the student loan handout adds nearly $330 billion to the deficit over the next decade. A budget model by the University of Pennsylvania's Wharton School of Business asserts that the average cost per taxpayer will be $2,085.

But that could be on the low end. The Committee for a Responsible Budget puts the cost of the handouts at between $440 billion and $600 billion.

"If this ends up being added to the national debt, it's just going to drive up the interest costs needed to not default on that figure," said Riedl. "All of that is eventually going to drive up taxes because, at some point, you'll have to figure out a way to pay that debt."

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White House suggests Biden's $500B student loan handout will be paid for with deficit spending

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White House officials appear to suggest that President Biden's cancellation of between $10,000 to $20,000 in student debt per borrower will be funded through deficit spending.

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President Biden believes that a post-high school education should be a ticket to a middle-class life, but for too many, the cost of borrowing for college is a lifelong burden that deprives them of that opportunity. During the campaign, he promised to provide student debt relief. Today, the Biden Administration is following through on that promise and providing families breathing room as they prepare to start re-paying loans after the economic crisis brought on by the pandemic.

Since 1980, the total cost of both four-year public and four-year private college has nearly tripled, even after accounting for inflation. Federal support has not kept up: Pell Grants once covered nearly 80 percent of the cost of a four-year public college degree for students from working families, but now only cover a third. That has left many students from low- and middle-income families with no choice but to borrow if they want to get a degree. According to a Department of Education analysis, the typical undergraduate student with loans now graduates with nearly $25,000 in debt.

The skyrocketing cumulative federal student loan debt-$1.6 trillion and rising for more than 45 million borrowers-is a significant burden on America's middle class. Middle-class borrowers struggle with high monthly payments and ballooning balances that make it harder for them to build wealth, like buying homes, putting away money for retirement, and starting small businesses.

For the most vulnerable borrowers, the effects of debt are even more crushing. Nearly one-third of borrowers have debt but no degree, according to an analysis by the Department of Education of a recent cohort of undergraduates. Many of these students could not complete their degree because the cost of attendance was too high. About 16% of borrowers are in default - including nearly a third of senior citizens with student debt - which can result in the government garnishing a borrower's wages or lowering a borrower's credit score. The student debt burden also falls disproportionately on Black borrowers. Twenty years after first enrolling in school, the typical Black borrower who started college in the 1995-96 school year still owed 95% of their original student debt.

Today, President Biden is announcing a three-part plan to provide more breathing room to America's working families as they continue to recover from the strains associated with the COVID-19 pandemic. This plan offers targeted debt relief as part of a comprehensive effort to address the burden of growing college costs and make the student loan system more manageable for working families. The President is announcing that the Department of Education will:

Provide targeted debt relief to address the financial harms of the pandemic, fulfilling the President's campaign commitment. The Department of Education will provide up to $20,000 in debt cancellation to Pell Grant recipients with loans held by the Department of Education, and up to $10,000 in debt cancellation to non-Pell Grant recipients. Borrowers are eligible for this relief if their individual income is less than $125,000 ($250,000 for married couples). No high-income individual or high-income household - in the top 5% of incomes - will benefit from this action. To ensure a smooth transition to repayment and prevent unnecessary defaults, the pause on federal student loan repayment will be extended one final time through December 31, 2022. Borrowers should expect to resume payment in January 2023.

Make the student loan system more manageable for current and future borrowers by:

Cutting monthly payments in half for undergraduate loans. The Department of Education is proposing a new income-driven repayment plan that protects more low-income borrowers from making any payments and caps monthly payments for undergraduate loans at 5% of a borrower's discretionary income-half of the rate that borrowers must pay now under most existing plans. This means that the average annual student loan payment will be lowered by more than $1,000 for both current and future borrowers.

Fixing the broken Public Service Loan Forgiveness (PSLF) program by proposing a rule that borrowers who have worked at a nonprofit, in the military, or in federal, state, tribal, or local government, receive appropriate credit toward loan forgiveness. These improvements will build on temporary changes the Department of Education has already made to PSLF, under which more than 175,000 public servants have already had more than $10 billion in loan forgiveness approved.

Protect future students and taxpayers by reducing the cost of college and holding schools accountable when they hike up prices. The President championed the largest increase to Pell Grants in over a decade and one of the largest one-time influxes to colleges and universities. To further reduce the cost of college, the President will continue to fight to double the maximum Pell Grant and make community college free. Meanwhile, colleges have an obligation to keep prices reasonable and ensure borrowers get value for their investments, not debt they cannot afford. This Administration has already taken key steps to strengthen accountability, including in areas where the previous Administration weakened rules. The Department of Education is announcing new efforts to ensure student borrowers get value for their college costs.

Provide Targeted Debt Relief, Fulfilling the President's Campaign Commitment

To address the financial harms of the pandemic for low- and middle-income borrowers and avoid defaults as loan repayment restarts next year, the Department of Education will provide up to $20,000 in loan relief to borrowers with loans held by the Department of Education whose individual income is less than $125,000 ($250,000 for married couples) and who received a Pell Grant. Nearly every Pell Grant recipient came from a family that made less than $60,000 a year, and Pell Grant recipients typically experience more challenges repaying their debt than other borrowers. Borrowers who meet those income standards but did not receive a Pell Grant in college can receive up to $10,000 in loan relief.

The Pell Grant program is one of America's most effective financial aid programs-but its value has been eroded over time. Pell Grant recipients are more than 60% of the borrower population. The Department of Education estimates that roughly 27 million borrowers will be eligible to receive up to $20,000 in relief, helping these borrowers meet their economic potential and avoid economic harm from the COVID-19 pandemic.

Current students with loans are eligible for this debt relief. Borrowers who are dependent students will be eligible for relief based on parental income, rather than their own income.

If all borrowers claim the relief they are entitled to, these actions will:

Provide relief to up to 43 million borrowers, including cancelling the full remaining balance for roughly 20 million borrowers.

Target relief dollars to low- and middle-income borrowers. The Department of Education estimates that, among borrowers who are no longer in school, nearly 90% of relief dollars will go to those earning less than $75,000 a year. No individual making more than $125,000 or household making more than $250,000 - the top 5% of incomes in the United States - will receive relief.

Help borrowers of all ages. The Department of Education estimates that, among borrowers who are eligible for relief, 21% are 25 years and under and 44% are ages 26-39. More than a third are borrowers age 40 and up, including 5% of borrowers who are senior citizens.

Advance racial equity. By targeting relief to borrowers with the highest economic need, the Administration's actions are likely to help narrow the racial wealth gap. Black students are more likely to have to borrow for school and more likely to take out larger loans. Black borrowers are twice as likely to have received Pell Grants compared to their white peers. Other borrowers of color are also more likely than their peers to receive Pell Grants. That is why an Urban Institute study found that debt forgiveness programs targeting those who received Pell Grants while in college will advance racial equity.

The Department of Education will work quickly and efficiently to set up a simple application process for borrowers to claim relief. The application will be available no later than when the pause on federal student loan repayments terminates at the end of the year. Nearly 8 million borrowers may be eligible to receive relief automatically because their relevant income data is already available to the Department.

Thanks to the American Rescue Plan, this debt relief will not be treated as taxable income for the federal income tax purposes.

To help ensure a smooth transition back to repayment, the Department of Education is extending the student loan pause a final time through December 31, 2022. No one with federally-held loans has had to pay a single dollar in loan payments since President Biden took office.

Make the Student Loan System More Manageable for Current and Future Borrowers

Fixing Existing Loan Repayment to Lower Monthly Payments

The Administration is reforming student loan repayment plans so both current and future low- and middle-income borrowers will have smaller and more manageable monthly payments.

The Department of Education has the authority to create income-driven repayment plans, which cap what borrowers pay each month based on a percentage of their discretionary income. Most of these plans cancel a borrower's remaining debt once they make 20 years of monthly payments. But the existing versions of these plans are too complex and too limited. As a result, millions of borrowers who might benefit from them do not sign up, and the millions who do sign up are still often left with unmanageable monthly payments.

To address these concerns and follow through on Congress' original vision for income-driven repayment, the Department of Education is proposing a rule to do the following:

For undergraduate loans, cut in half the amount that borrowers have to pay each month from 10% to 5% of discretionary income.

Raise the amount of income that is considered non-discretionary income and therefore is protected from repayment, guaranteeing that no borrower earning under 225% of the federal poverty level-about the annual equivalent of a $15 minimum wage for a single borrower-will have to make a monthly payment.

Forgive loan balances after 10 years of payments, instead of 20 years, for borrowers with original loan balances of $12,000 or less. The Department of Education estimates that this reform will allow nearly all community college borrowers to be debt-free within 10 years.

Cover the borrower's unpaid monthly interest, so that unlike other existing income-driven repayment plans, no borrower's loan balance will grow as long as they make their monthly payments-even when that monthly payment is $0 because their income is low.

These reforms would simplify loan repayment and deliver significant savings to low- and middle-income borrowers. For example:

A typical single construction worker (making $38,000 a year) with a construction management credential would pay only $31 a month, compared to the $147 they pay now under the most recent income-driven repayment plan, for annual savings of nearly $1,400.

A typical single public school teacher with an undergraduate degree (making $44,000 a year) would pay only $56 a month on their loans, compared to the $197 they pay now under the most recent income-driven repayment plan, for annual savings of nearly $1,700.

A typical nurse (making $77,000 a year) who is married with two kids would pay only $61 a month on their undergraduate loans, compared to the $295 they pay now under the most recent income-driven repayment plan, for annual savings of more than $2,800.

For each of these borrowers, their balances would not grow as long as they are making their monthly payments, and their remaining debt would be forgiven after they make the required number of qualifying payments.

Further, the Department of Education will make it easier for borrowers who enroll in this new plan to stay enrolled. Starting in the summer of 2023, borrowers will be able to allow the Department of Education to automatically pull their income information year after year, avoiding the hassle of needing to recertify their income annually.

Ensuring Public Servants Receive Credit Toward Loan Forgiveness

Borrowers working in public service are entitled to earn credit toward debt relief under the Public Service Loan Forgiveness (PSLF) program. But because of complex eligibility restrictions, historic implementation failures, and poor counseling given to borrowers, many borrowers have not received the credit they deserve for their public service.

The Department of Education has announced time-limited changes to PSLF that provide an easier path to forgiveness of all outstanding debt for eligible federal student loan borrowers who have served at a non-profit, in the military, or in federal, state, Tribal, or local government for at least 10 years, including non-consecutively. Those who have served less than 10 years may now more easily get credit for their service to date toward eventual forgiveness. These changes allow eligible borrowers to gain additional credit toward forgiveness, even if they had been told previously that they had the wrong loan type.

The Department of Education also has proposed regulatory changes to ensure more effective implementation of the PSLF program moving forward. Specifically, the Department of Education has proposed allowing more payments to qualify for PSLF including partial, lump sum, and late payments, and allowing certain kinds of deferments and forbearances, such as those for Peace Corps and AmeriCorps service, National Guard duty, and military service, to count toward PSLF. The Department of Education also proposed to ensure the rules work better for non-tenured instructors whose colleges need to calculate their full-time employment.

To ensure borrowers are aware of the temporary changes, the White House has launched four PSLF Days of Action dedicated to borrowers in specific sectors: government employees, educators, healthcare workers and first responders, and non-profit employees. You can find out other information about the temporary changes on PSLF.gov. You must apply to PSLF before the temporary changes end on October 31, 2022.

Protecting Borrowers and Taxpayers from Steep Increases in College Costs

While providing this relief to low- and middle-income borrowers, the President is focused on keeping college costs under control. Under this Administration, students have had more money in their pockets to pay for college. The President signed the largest increase to the maximum Pell Grant in over a decade and provided nearly $40 billion to colleges and universities through the American Rescue Plan, much of which was used for emergency student financial aid, allowing students to breathe a little easier.

Additionally, the Department of Education has already taken significant steps to strengthen accountability, so that students are not left with mountains of debt with little payoff. The agency has re-established the enforcement unit in the Office of Federal Student Aid and it is holding accreditors' feet to the fire. In fact, the Department just withdrew authorization for the accreditor that oversaw schools responsible for some of the worst for-profit scandals. The agency will also propose a rule to hold career programs accountable for leaving their graduates with mountains of debt they cannot repay, a rule the previous Administration repealed.

Building off of these efforts, the Department of Education is announcing new actions to hold accountable colleges that have contributed to the student debt crisis. These include publishing an annual watch list of the programs with the worst debt levels in the country, so that students registering for the next academic year can steer clear of programs with poor outcomes. They also include requesting institutional improvement plans from the worst actors that outline how the colleges with the most concerning debt outcomes intend to bring down debt levels.

More information on claiming relief will be available to borrowers in the coming weeks.

Borrowers can sign up to be notified when this information is available at StudentAid.gov/debtrelief.

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FACT SHEET: President Biden Announces Student Loan Relief for Borrowers Who Need It Most - The White House

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President Biden believes that a post-high school education should be a ticket to a middle-class life, but for too many, the cost of borrowing for college is a lifelong burden that deprives them of that opportunity. During the campaign, he promised to provide student debt relief.