President Joe Biden’s announcement today forgiving up to $20,000 of student loan debt is being welcomed by students at Kent State University.
Chris Powers is a graduate student from Erie studying visual communication design. He said taking out loans for graduate school was a barrier that almost stopped him from continuing his education. He’s excited about Biden’s announcement.
“It would help me be more financially free down the line, not have to worry about stuff, like loans ... or how I’m going to eat," he said. "I won’t have to pay for loans, but just being able to do stuff that I want to do instead of paying for loans.”
Emma Deberry is a freshman fashion merchandising major from Michigan. She made the decision to take out a loan for about $15,000 to cover her first year of college.
“It was pretty hard, because in retrospect, college didn’t look so expensive, but then you took out the loan, and you were like, ‘Wow that would be a lot,’" she said. "Especially if I took out the same loan every year. I would be hundreds of thousands of dollars in debt.”
Deberry said she’s excited to get some relief from the loan forgiveness plan.
Biden’s plan will forgive $10,000 of federal student loan debt for as many as 1.7 million Ohioans, according to the Education Data Initiative, a research organization that collects data and statistics about the U.S. education system.
Borrowers who make less than $125,000 yearly or married couples or heads of households who make less than $250,000 will qualify. Low-income students who received a Pell Grant will be eligible for an additional $10,000 of relief if they meet the income qualifications. The plan applies to both former and current students.
Federal Student Aid, an office of the U.S. Department of Education, said nearly eight million borrowers won't need to do anything to receive debt forgiveness, as the Department of Education already has their income information. The Biden administration said it will launch an application in the coming weeks for borrowers to provide their income information to receive student loan forgiveness.
Ohio borrowers owe $62.3 billion in student loan debt. Ohio students are the most likely in the states to have accrued student loan debt, only behind Washington D.C. students.
In addition to the debt forgiveness, Biden's plan extends the current pause on loan payments to Dec. 31. The pause was set to expire Aug. 31.
The Biden administration had previously canceled nearly $32 billion in student loan debt by expanding existing forgiveness programs for public servants, disabled people and students who were defrauded by for profit colleges.
