Biden announces new student loan forgiveness plan for 800,000 borrowers

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A new loan forgiveness plan from President Joe Biden announced Friday would relieve $39 billion in student loans for more than 800,000 borrowers.

The plan, which comes after the U.S. Supreme Court struck down Biden’s original plan, targets student loan borrowers who have been repaying their loans for at least 20 years. Biden’s original three-part loan forgiveness plan was projected to provide up to $400 billion in relief for approximately 43 million borrowers.

“When the Supreme Court made the wrong decision, I immediately announced a new plan to open an alternative path to relief for as many borrowers as possible, as soon as possible,” Biden said in the announcement. “As long as I’m in office, I will continue to work to bring the promise of college to every American.”

People eligible for the new plan include those with federal loans owned by the Department of Education enrolled in income-driven repayment plans or qualified borrowers eligible to apply for income-driven repayment plans.

Biden’s new plan could impact Syracuse University students and alumni who are loan borrowers. Over half of graduating SU students have taken out some kind of loan, according to U.S. News & World Report.

On May 5, SU announced an approximately 5% increase in tuition costs for the 2023-24 academic year, which raised tuition costs from a year total of $58,440 to $61,310 for undergraduates. Students have previously expressed frustration over the university’s heightened costs, which have increased by nearly 36% between the 2017-18 and 2023-24 academic years.

Following the Supreme Court’s earlier decision, President Biden also announced a series of actions to assist student loan borrowers — a critical promise Biden made while running for president — which lowers the percentage of income borrowers need to pay under federal income-driven repayment plans.