Education Secretary nominee Miguel Cardona testifies before the Senate Health, Education, Labor and Pensions committee during his confirmation hearing on Capitol Hill Washington, DC., February 3, 2021.
Susan Walsh | Pool | Reuters
The U.S. Department of Education announced Thursday it will cancel $1.1 billion in student debt for 115,000 borrowers.
The relief will go to those who attended ITT Technical Institute, a for-profit school that is now defunct. The school is accused of misrepresenting itself and steering students into pricey private loans. These borrowers didn’t finish their degrees and left the school after March 31, 2008.
“Today’s action continues the Department’s efforts to improve and use its targeted loan relief authorities to deliver meaningful help to student borrowers,” U.S. Secretary of Education Miguel Cardona, in a statement.
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The Education Department under the Biden administration has now canceled student debt for 563,000 borrowers, totaling $9.5 billion.
Still, President Joe Biden remains under pressure from Democrats, advocates and borrowers to go further and cancel $50,000 per borrower in student debt for all.
Biden has asked the Education Department and the U.S. Department of Justice to review his legal authority to forgive student debt through executive action. The findings of those reports are not yet public.
“You don’t need Congress,” Sen. Majority Leader Chuck Schumer, D-N.Y., has said. “All you need is the flick of a pen.”
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