President Joe Biden announced this Thursday that he is canceling another $5.8 billion in student debt. The president of the United States announced that this will benefit nearly 78,000 public service workers.
This round of debt forgiveness will benefit people who work as teachers, nurses or firefighters. The president, as conveyed in a press release obtained by Telemundo, stated that these workers "have dedicated their careers to serving their communities" and are the ideal candidates for debt forgiveness:
These public service workers have dedicated their careers to serving their communities, but because of past administrative failures, never got the relief they were entitled to under the law. From day one of my administration, I promised to fix broken student loan programs and make sure higher education is a ticket to the middle class, not a barrier to opportunity. I won't back down from using every tool at my disposal to deliver student debt relief to more Americans and build an economy from the middle out and the bottom up.
It could take 1-2 years for another 380,000 people to have their debt forgiven
These 78,000 people will not be the only ones to benefit from student debt forgiveness. Biden also stated that the next beneficiaries of said forgiveness will receive an email letting them know that they will receive the aid, but that it could still take between one and two years for it to be granted. USA Today reported that a total of 380,000 people in the public sector will receive this email.
The timing of announcing the new student debt forgiveness is not coincidental. It comes amid Joe Biden's presidential re-election race against former President Donald Trump for the second time. Trump and other Republican leaders believe this debt forgiveness is a conveniently timed strategy and have criticized the current president for "buying votes" to win a second term.
