ATLANTA — U.S. Education Secretary Miguel Cardona on Thursday morning announced $4.5 billion in new student debt relief for 60,000 public service workers by the Biden-Harris administration.
Sec. Cardona made the announcement in a press conference in Atlanta. He was joined by Rep. Lucy McBath, with the two due to make a school visit and conduct a roundtable later.
The secretary said the debt relief for 60,000 more people brings the total number of people approved for loan forgiveness under the administration through the Public Service Loan Forgiveness program to over 1 million.
Cardona described it as relief for "our nation's teachers, nurses, first responders and other public servants... those public servants that four years ago we were calling essential, remember that?"
He said crossing the 1 million people approved mark was a milestone that "just four years ago was unthinkable."
According to a data table compiled by the Department of Education, more than 41,000 people in Georgia have been forgiven nearly $3.8 billion in debt under the Public Service Loan Forgiveness program.
The education secretary and congresswoman were scheduled to later visit Five Forks Middle School in Gwinnett County for a roundtable conversation that would, according to a release, "uplift the Biden-Harris Administrations work to provide additional mental health supports in schools through School-Based Mental Health (SBMH) and Mental Health Service Professionals Demonstration (MHSP) grant programs."
According to a Department of Education release, the administration's loan forgiveness efforts, across the Public Service Loan Forgiveness Program and other initiatives, now totals more than $175 billion for more than 4.8 million people.
“Before President Biden and Vice President Harris entered the White House, the Public Service Loan Forgiveness program was so riddled by dysfunction that just 7,000 Americans ever qualified and countless public servants were trapped making payments on debts that should have been forgiven" Sec. Cardona said in a statement. “From Day One, the Biden-Harris administration made fixing this broken program a top priority, and today, I’m tremendously proud that over one million teachers, nurses, social workers, veterans, and other public servants have received lifechanging loan forgiveness. As Secretary of Education, I want to send a message to college students across America that pursuing a career in public service is not only a noble calling but a reliable pathway to becoming debt-free within a decade.”
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