The president stated that higher education is “a ticket to middle class”

On Thursday, President Joe Biden announced that his administration will forgive $5.8 billion of federal student loans for 78,000 employees in the public sector.

Biden stated that the borrowers, who include teachers, nurses and firefighters, had “dedicated” their careers to service their communities.

According to the White House, this will bring the total debt forgiveness of his administration to approximately $144 billion dollars for almost 4 million Americans.

Biden stated, “From the first day of my Administration I promised to fix broken loan programs, and ensure that higher education is not a barrier for opportunity, but a ticket into the middle class.”

He said, “I will not back down from using all the tools at my disposal to provide student debt relief to as many Americans and to build an economy that is built from the bottom to middle.”

Biden stated that the total number of cancellations by the administration for public servants now stands at 870,000. This is up from the 7,000 borrowers who “ever received forgiveness before my Administration”, he said.

He said, “Through all of my Administration’s various student debt relief measures, nearly four millions Americans have had their debts cancelled.”

Officials say that the total amount of student loans cancelled by Biden to date is over $143 billion.

After 10 years of uninterrupted payments, the Public Service Loan Forgiveness Program allows debt forgiveness to people who work in professions such as firefighting and nursing.

Officials have stated that the Biden administration has fixed this program which had not been able to provide student loan relief for many because of poor implementations and mistakes in the program.

The Biden Administration will also send emails to 380,000 borrowers within two years who have their loans forgiven by PSLF to encourage them to keep up with their payments.

Officials claim that 140,000 borrowers will receive the same forgiveness in less then a year.

A similar email will be sent to 240,000 borrowers who are on track for loan forgiveness within the next two-years.

Biden tried to cancel federal student loans in a broad way, affecting 43 million people and totaling $400 billion. The U.S. Supreme Court, however, rejected this as being outside of Biden’s authority.