The Biden administration is forgiving nearly $5 billion of student debt for more than 80,000 borrowers across the country.
U.S. Education Secretary Miguel Cardona Wednesday said the Public Service Loan Forgiveness program had only forgiven the debts of 7,000 essential workers since 2007 because of a dysfunctional system that one teacher said was full of tricks and traps to disqualify applicants.
"For educators, nurses, social workers and veterans, those we called essential workers three years ago, PSLF was little more than a cruel joke," Cardona said.
In Maine, more than 3,700 public servants have now had their student debt forgiven due to changes in the system by the Department of Education, so long as they made 120 student loan repayments on time.
More than 5,300 student loan borrowers in Maine have now received credit toward forgiveness of their loans under the Income Driven Repayment plan.
Cardona said an investigation of the IDR plan that ties monthly payments to a borrower's discretionary income failed to credit payments time and time again.
"We also had borrowers who spent decades making payments under IDR for 20 to 25 years in hopes of earning forgiveness. Our team found administrative failures showed payments were not counted, effectively cheating borrowers out of credit toward forgiveness," he said.
Wednesday's announcement is part of an overall effort by President Joe Biden to forgive $132 billion in debt for more than three and a half million Americans.
