February 21, 2024
April O'Neil / news@WHMI.com
Struggling student loan borrowers could soon receive additional relief.
The Biden-Harris Administration announced that it will hold additional rulemaking sessions on Thursday, February 22 and Friday, February 23, aimed at issues providing relief to distressed borrowers across the United States.
The talks will include measures such as relief for people with problems with loan servicers, aid for people with disabilities and support for students who attended closed institutions.
This week's session is hosted by the U.S. Department of Education.
At the end of the fourth quarter of 2023, the Federal Reserve reported that U.S. borrowers owed more than $1.77 trillion in student loan debt.
The Biden-Harris administration has approved more than $136.6 billion in targeted relief for people with student debt, including the largest increase in Pell grants in a decade.
In 2023, the U.S. Supreme Court struck down the administration's $400 billion student loan relief plan.
Critics of the student loan forgiveness plan say the president's effort is a “slap in the face” to people who are already paying their student loans without assistance, including Michigan Rep. Lisa McClain, who championed it in the House of Representatives. did. “Biden has no respect for hardworking taxpayers. Education is not free. Someone is paying for it.”
Approximately 14% of Michigan residents have some type of student loan debt. According to the Education Data Initiative, an independent research organization that studies higher education in the United States, as of 2022, 52.0% of these students will be under the age of 35.
A link to the Education Data Initiative can be found below.