Category Archives: Education

Biden Administration, Education, News & Photo Features

FACT SHEET: Biden-Harris Administration Announces Additional Actions to Drive Academic Success for all Students

Public School in Queens, NY. The Biden-Harris Administration believes that public education is the bedrock of our democracy and the foundation of opportunity in our country—and that every young person should have the chance to learn, grow, and pursue their dreams. Since Day One, the Biden-Harris Administration has focused on improving academic achievement, increasing student attendance and engagement, and building communities where all students feel they belong and can thrive. That’s why the Biden-Harris Administration made the single-largest investment in K-12 education in history. © Karen Rubin/news-photos-features.com

While rightwing MAGA extremists want to shut down universities, weaken public education, and impose their White Christian Nationalist curriculum (as Florida Governor Ron DeSantis has done) – banning books and rewriting curriculum to whitewash history – the Biden-Harris Administration recognizes public education “is the bedrock of our democracy and the foundation of opportunity in our country” and “every young person should have the chance to learn, grow and pursue their dreams.” The administration has worked to bolster academic achievement, particularly address learning losses that followed the coronavirus pandemic, and has made the single largest investment in K-12 education in history. This fact sheet, outlining additional actions the administration is taking to drive academic success for all students, was provided by the White House: – Karen Rubin/[email protected]

The Biden-Harris Administration believes that public education is the bedrock of our democracy and the foundation of opportunity in our country—and that every young person should have the chance to learn, grow, and pursue their dreams.

Since Day One, the Biden-Harris Administration has focused on improving academic achievement, increasing student attendance and engagement, and building communities where all students feel they belong and can thrive. That’s why the Biden-Harris Administration made the single-largest investment in K-12 education in history—and it is delivering results, including student achievement gains. A Harvard and Stanford study, for example, for example, examined outcomes in districts that received large amounts of federal COVID-19 relief funding, which ranged from approximately $4,000 to more than $13,000 per student, and found that these investments will pay for itself in increased earnings for students who benefit, with particularly large impacts for students in schools with high rates of poverty. These investments not only improve academic achievement, but other student outcomes. Another economic study shows that a 10% increase in per student spending each year for all 12 years of public school leads to about 7% higher wages in adulthood, with more pronounced effects for students from low-income backgrounds.
 
As students across the country head back to school, the Biden-Harris Administration is working to make sure America’s schools have the resources and supports they need to continue their important progress. Working together, at the federal, state, and local level, we must all double-down on strengthening reading and math skills; increasing student attendance and engagement; providing afterschool and expanded learning programs; and increasing access to intensive tutoring. We must also provide teachers and school leaders with evidence-based preparation, development, coaching, and resources to support student academic success and literacy and math and their overall well-being, which is foundational to that success.
 
As part of our ongoing commitment to support student success, today we are announcing the following Administration actions:

  • Awarding $149 million to support states in implementing evidence-based reading interventions, including efforts to ensure every child is reading fluently by third grade. The U.S. Department of Education’s Comprehensive Literacy State Development grant program supports states in creating comprehensive literacy programs and providing professional development to advance literacy skills, including pre-literacy skills, reading, and writing, for children and youth, focusing on underserved students, including students from low-income backgrounds, English learners, and children with disabilities. For example, Ohio will partner with state colleges and universities to better prepare educators to deliver evidence-based literacy instruction, and Montana will use funds to expand reading instructional skills for educators in rural communities.
    • Awarding $30 million to support comprehensive assessment systems that inform teaching and support learning. The U.S. Department of Education’s Competitive Grants for State Assessments program supports high-quality state assessment systems that measure student achievement and progress using multiple measures and gives insight into student learning, helping to inform instruction and support student achievement. For example, Nebraska will use funds to support English Learners by making assessment data more usable and actionable for educators as they design instruction. Issuing new school improvement guidance focused on evidence-based practices to support students and educators and accelerate academic achievement. To further support states and districts in their efforts to increase student success, the U.S. Department of Education is issuing school improvement guidance to support effective implementation of the Elementary and Secondary Education Act. The guidance provides examples of evidence-based approaches to support teaching and learning and drive student achievement. This includes addressing chronic absenteeism (for example, through early warning systems and improved family engagement, like home visits and effective parent communication such as texting), and providing high-quality tutoring (in small groups, 2-3 times per week by a well-prepared tutor, during the school day, and aligned with classroom instruction), and afterschool, expanded, and summer learning programs. This draft guidance is open for public comment until October 4, 2024. The Department will consider this community input and issue updated guidance by the end of the year.
       Releasing a new resource for educators on evidence-based strategies for increasing student literacy and math achievement. The Institute of Education Sciences is releasing a resource for educators on instructional strategies for increasing student success in literacy and math. Each resource includes concrete practices that can be used by teachers from early grades to high school, and provides links to additional resources that can support learning at home.  To support states, districts, schools, and families in addressing chronic absenteeism and increase student engagement, the Administration is: Calling on Governors and state education leaders to create statewide student data systems that provide chronic absenteeism-related data for all schools that are actionable, help target interventions, and drive improvement. The Administration encourages all state leaders to ensure that every school district in their state has the real-time data they need to identify and reduce chronic absenteeism and improve student success. States including Alabama, Connecticut, Indiana, and Rhode Island have developed innovative statewide student information systems to help increase student attendance. At a minimum, state systems are encouraged to provide:
      • to the public, up-to-date rates of chronic absenteeism and whether rates are declining or increasing;to educators, real-time, school-level data that enables them to identify the root causes of chronic absenteeism, select the appropriate interventions, target resources, and measure effectiveness; andto parents and families, real-time information on their child’s attendance. 
      Calling on industry vendors that provide student information systems to improve the availability and utility of student attendance data. This includes making attendance data available to states and districts at no additional cost; not charging districts to access, securely export, or display their own data; and adopting industry aligned data standards or practices for student attendance data that allows for interoperability between the modules that states and districts use, between vendors, and between districts that may use different data systems. To support these efforts, this year, the Department of Education will issue a resource for state leaders highlighting different state approaches to creating and implementing data systems to address chronic absenteeism along with recommendations for states and local leaders. The guide will also include information on how federal funding can be used to support these efforts.  Founding the Student Attendance and Engagement Solutions Network, part of the National Partnership for Student Success (NPSS), a partnership among the U.S. Department of Education, AmeriCorps, and the Johns Hopkins University Everyone Graduates Center. The Network supports school districts and states in their efforts to reduce chronic absenteeism, increase student engagement, and enhance prevention strategies for the 2024-25 academic year and beyond. To date, almost 200 school districts across 43 states and eight state education agencies, in total representing more than 11,000 schools and 7.2 million students, have joined the network to learn from each other about how to improve attendance and engagement. The Network is open for districts and states to join. More information on the network and how to join can be found here. Releasing a joint resource by the U.S. Departments of Education and Transportation highlighting ways to provide safe, reliable transit options to get young people to and from school and support everyday student attendance. Many students miss school because of transportation issues, especially in vulnerable communities. To address this issue, transit agencies, school districts, and local and state government leaders can work together to improve transit options for families, including through offering free or reduced transit fares, expanding safe routes to school, and creating a “walking or bike bus”. This resource includes strategies to support students and families in getting to and from school at low or no cost, and federal funding available to support these efforts through the Departments of Education and Transportation. Releasing, this month, a joint resource for parents by the U.S. Departments of Education and Agriculture on how healthy school meals support regular attendance. This resource provides information that schools can use in engaging parents and caregivers on how school meals bolster everyday student attendance and support healthy growth and development and how to access programs. Launching the “Attendance Champions Challenge” to hear directly from young people on creative solutions to address chronic absenteeism. The Challenge, hosted on challenge.gov, will encourage state and local leaders to directly engage young people (ages 13-19) in sharing barriers to regular school attendance and proposing viable, creative solutions to support their attendance and engagement. The Challenge is open until November 29th and more information can be found at this website. 

In addition to these actions by the Administration, a number of organizations have taken action to tackle absenteeism, as previewed during the White House Every Day Counts Summit. These actions include a messaging toolkit for states, districts, and educators based on new research around effectively communicating with parents to increase student attendance, developed by the Ad Council Research Institute (ACRI), with support from Overdeck Family Foundation, available on September 10th. Information on additional actions by organizations is available here.
 
These resources build on the previous Administration actions to promote academic achievement and student success, including:
 

  • Securing $130 billion for the largest-ever investment in public education through state and district funding in the American Rescue Plan (ARP). ARP has been used to help schools safely reopen, and address the academic, mental health, and other needs of students. ARP funding has put more teachers in our classrooms and more support staff in our schools; expanded high-dosage tutoring; led to record expansion of summer and after-school programs; improved HVAC systems; and increased access to a wide range of student supports. The most recent data shows that states and districts have allocated more than $70 billion to activities that address students’ academic, social, and emotional needs, including tutoring, afterschool, and summer learning, and research is showing that these investments are working. 
    • Enabling states to continue investing pandemic relief funds into academic achievement efforts in the 2024-25 school year and focus remaining resources on improving outcomes. The Department issued a letter, Frequently Asked Questions, and a template to support States and provide a critical pathway to continue to use ARP dollars in the 2024-2025 school year, including on evidence-based academic and other student supports.  

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Biden Administration, College Affordability, Education, News & Photo Features

Biden-Harris Administration Takes Next Step Toward Additional Debt Relief for Tens of Millions of Student Loan Borrowers This Fall

President Biden presses ahead with efforts to relieve millions of Americans from the burden of student loan debt © Karen Rubin/news-photos-features.com.

In a clear demonstration of the Biden Administration refusing to give up or give in, President Biden just announced next steps to cancel student debt for some 30 million Americans – despite Republicans actually going to the Supreme Court to prevent the administration from exercising its authority.

 “Today, my Administration took another major step to cancel student debt for approximately 30 million Americans,,” President Biden stated. “By providing more information to borrowers on how they can take advantage of our upcoming debt relief programs, borrowers will be prepared to benefit swiftly once the rules are final. Despite attempts led by Republican elected officials to block our efforts, we won’t stop fighting to provide relief to student loan borrowers, fix the broken student loan system, and help borrowers get out from under the burden of student debt. 
 
“Today’s announcement comes on top of the significant progress we’ve made for students and borrowers over the past three years. That includes canceling student debt for nearly 5 million Americans so far through various actions; providing the largest increases to the maximum Pell Grant in over a decade; fixing Income-Driven Repayment so borrowers get the relief they are entitled to under the law; and holding colleges accountable for taking advantage of students and families.
 
:From day one of my Administration, I promised to fight to ensure higher education is a ticket to the middle class, not a barrier to opportunity. I will never stop working to make higher education affordable and to make sure our Administration delivers for the American people.”

This fact sheet was provided by the White House:

Next Step Toward Additional Debt Relief for Tens of Millions of Student Loan Borrowers This Fall

Starting tomorrow, the Department will email borrowers telling them about potential debt relief and giving them the opportunity to opt out   

The Biden-Harris Administration today announced that it will begin the next step toward providing student debt relief to tens of millions of borrowers this Fall. Starting tomorrow, the U.S. Department of Education (Department) will begin emailing all borrowers with at least one outstanding federally held student loan to provide updates on potential student debt relief, and to inform them they have until August 30 to call their servicer and opt out if they do not want this relief.

The rules that would provide this relief are not yet finalized, and the email does not guarantee specific borrowers will be eligible. The Department will provide additional information to borrowers once the rules are finalized this fall. These proposed rules build upon the Administration’s existing work that has approved more than $168 billion in student loan relief for nearly 4.8 million borrowers through various actions. These rules, if finalized as proposed, would bring the total number of borrowers eligible for student debt relief to over 30 million, including borrowers who have already been approved for debt cancellation by the Biden-Harris Administration over the past three years. 

“Today, the Biden-Harris administration takes another step forward in our drive to deliver student debt relief to borrowers who’ve been failed by a broken system,” said U.S. Secretary of Education Miguel Cardona. “These latest steps will mark the next milestone in our efforts to help millions of borrowers who’ve been buried under a mountain of student loan interest, or who took on debt to pay for college programs that left them worse off financially, those who have been paying their loans for twenty or more years, and many others. The Biden-Harris Administration made a commitment to deliver student debt relief to as many borrowers as possible as quickly as possible, and today, as we near the end of a lengthy rulemaking process, we’re one step closer to keeping that promise.” 

In April, the Administration released its first set of draft rules that proposed authorizing the Secretary of Education to grant student debt relief to tens of millions of borrowers across the country, including those whose balances have grown due to runaway interest and those who entered repayment on their loans a long time ago, among others. If these rules are finalized as the Department has proposed, they would authorize the Secretary of Education to provide partial or full debt relief for the following groups of borrowers:

  • Borrowers who owe more now than they did at the start of repayment. Borrowers would be eligible for relief if they have a current balance on certain types of Federal student loans that is greater than the balance of that loan when it entered repayment due to runaway interest. The Department estimates that this debt relief would impact nearly 23 million borrowers, the majority of whom are Pell Grant recipients.
    • Borrowers who have been in repayment for decades. If a borrower with only undergraduate loans has been in repayment for more than 20 years (received on or before July 1, 2005), they would be eligible for this relief. Borrowers with at least one graduate loan who have been in repayment for more than 25 years (received on or before July 1, 2000) would also be eligible.
    • Borrowers who are otherwise eligible for loan forgiveness but have not yet applied. If a borrower hasn’t successfully enrolled in an income-driven repayment (IDR) plan but would be eligible for immediate forgiveness, they would be eligible for relief. Borrowers who would be eligible for closed school discharge or other types of forgiveness opportunities but haven’t successfully applied would also be eligible for this relief.
    • Borrowers who enrolled in low-financial value programs. If a borrower attended an institution that failed to provide sufficient financial value, or that failed one of the Department’s accountability standards for institutions, those borrowers would also be eligible for debt relief.

If finalized as proposed, these new rules would authorize relief for borrowers across the country who have struggled with the burden of student loan debt. The Department expects that all four of these proposed forms of relief would be provided to eligible borrowers without requiring any action from borrowers; no application would be needed.

If, however, borrowers prefer to opt out of this debt relief for any reason, they can do so by contacting their servicer by Aug. 30, 2024. Borrowers who opt out of this debt relief will not be able to opt back in, and they will also be temporarily opted out of forgiveness due to enrollment in an IDR plan until the Department is able to automatically assess their eligibility for that benefit in a few months. In addition, borrowers would only be eligible for the proposed relief if they have entered repayment at the time that the Department would be determining eligibility, after the proposed rules are finalized.

More information for borrowers about this debt relief is available at StudentAid.gov/debt-relief.

An unparalleled track record of borrower assistance

The Biden-Harris Administration has taken historic steps to reduce the burden of student debt and ensure that student loans are not a barrier to educational and economic opportunity for students and families. The Administration secured a $900 increase to the maximum Pell Grant—the largest increase in a decade—and finalized new rules to help protect borrowers from career programs that leave graduates with unaffordable debts or insufficient earnings. The Administration continues its work to issue debt relief regulations under the Higher Education Act, with final regulations expected this fall.

The Biden-Harris Administration has approved the following debt relief for borrowers:

  • $69.2 billion for 946,000 borrowers through fixes to Public Service Loan Forgiveness (PSLF).
    • $51 billion for more than 1 million borrowers through administrative adjustments to IDR payment counts. These adjustments have brought borrowers closer to forgiveness and addressed longstanding concerns with the misuse of forbearance by loan servicers.
    • $28.7 billion for more than 1.6 million borrowers who were cheated by their schools, saw their institutions precipitously close, or are covered by related court settlements.
    • $14.1 billion for more than 548,000 borrowers with a total and permanent disability.

$5.5 billion for 414,000 borrowers through the SAVE Plan

Biden Administration, Education, News & Photo Features

FACT SHEET: President Biden Announces New Actions to Advance Racial and Educational Equity on 70th Anniversary of Brown v. Board of Education

This fact sheet detailing new actions by the Biden Administration to advance racial and educational equity, announced on the 70th anniversary of the landmark Brown v. Board of Education Supreme Court decision, was provided by the White House:

On the 70th anniversary of the landmark Brown v. Board of Education (Brown) decision, which outlawed racially segregated schools – deeming them unequal and unconstitutional – the Biden-Harris Administration highlights new actions with the release of additional funding and resources to support school diversity and advance the goal that all students have access to a world-class education. © Karen Rubin/news-photo-features.com

President Biden believes every student deserves access to a high-quality education that prepares them to be the next generation of leaders. Today, on the 70th anniversary of the landmark Brown v. Board of Education (Brown) decision, which outlawed racially segregated schools – deeming them unequal and unconstitutional – the Biden-Harris Administration highlights new actions with the release of additional funding and resources to support school diversity and advance the goal that all students have access to a world-class education. 

Research shows that racial achievement gaps are strongly associated with school segregation, in turn because schools with high concentrations of Black and Latino students receive fewer resources. The desegregation of schools that followed Brown led to a 30 percent increase in graduation rates for Black students and a 22 percent increase for Latino students. As school districts were released from court-ordered desegregation, research shows that in the 1960s and 1970s, school integration increased rapidly, but that trend has reversed in the past two decades when both racial and economic segregation increased. For example, segregation between white and Black students is up 64 percent since 1988, while segregation by economic status has grown by 50 percent since 1991. According to the U.S. Department of Education’s State of School Diversity Report, racially and socioeconomically isolated schools often lack critical resources and learning experiences and opportunities that prepare students for college and career success. The Department of Education report found that three in five Black and Latino students and two in five American Indian/Alaska Native students attend schools where at least 75% of students are students of color and 42% of white students attend schools where students of color make up less than 25% of the population. 

The Biden-Harris Administration is committed to ensuring the educational success of every child, and to address racial segregation in our schools that leads to worse educational outcomes for children, including through investments in local efforts to increase diversity and equal opportunity. The Administration is focused on academic acceleration and has made record levels of investment in K-12 schools and institutions of higher education to help improve opportunity for all. This includes supporting districts as they work to strengthen and diversify the education profession, enrich educational experiences, and improve school climate and conditions for robust learning.

New Actions to Advance Racial and Educational Equity

To advance racial and educational equity and continue the work of Brown to support educational opportunity for all students, the Biden-Harris Administration announced the following new actions today:

  • New Magnet School Grants. The Department of Education’s Magnet Schools Assistance Program (MSAP) will invest $20 million in new awards for school districts in Arkansas, Colorado, Florida, Kentucky, Louisiana, North Carolina, and Texas to establish magnet programs designed to further desegregate public schools by attracting students from different social, economic, ethnic, and racial backgrounds. The President’s 2025 budget request includes $139 million for MSAP and $10 million to continue investments in the Fostering Diverse Schools program.
  • Establishing a new technical assistance center to help states and school districts provide more equitable and adequate approaches to school funding. The U.S. Department of Education announced a new Technical Assistance Center on Fiscal Equity as part of the Comprehensive Centers Program. The Center on Fiscal Equity will provide capacity-building services to support states and school districts build equitable and adequate resource allocation strategies, improve the quality and transparency of fiscal data, and prioritize supports for students and communities with the greatest need.
  • New Data on Equal Access to Math and Science Courses. The Department of Education Office for Civil Rights is releasing a new Civil Rights Data Collection report highlighting students’ access to and enrollment in mathematics, science, and computer science courses and academic programs, drawing from information in the 2020-21 Civil Rights Data Collection (CRDC). The report reflects stark continuing racial inequities in access to math, science, and computer science courses for students in high schools with high concentrations of Black and Latino students. 
  • Preserving African American History. To further advance the President’s Executive Order on Promoting the Arts, the Humanities, and Museum and Library Services, the Administration is launching an interagency process to develop new actions by the Federal Government to preserve African American history – including preserving historic sites, protecting and increasing access to literature, and ensuring the public, including students, has continuing access to resources. This effort will bolster African American history and culture as integral, indelible parts of American history.

Investing in Underserved Schools

  • Under the American Rescue Plan, the nation’s schools received $130 billion in funding – the most in our Nation’s history – with a focus on undeserved schools. The American Rescue Plan also included new requirements that have driven nearly $800 million in State additional education funding, above and beyond the federal investment, to the most underserved school by protecting schools with high rates of poverty from reductions in State and local education funding.
  • To date, the Biden-Harris Administration has secured nearly $2 billion in additional Title I funding to support our schools with the highest need, for a record $18.4 billion in annual funding.
  • The Biden-Harris Administration has also increased funding for Full-Service Community Schools five-fold, from $30 million in Fiscal Year (FY) 2021 to $150 million in FY 2024 so that underserved schools, including those that serve a majority of students of color, have the additional resources they need to help deliver more services to students and their families, such as health care, housing, and child care, to close resource and opportunity gaps.

Increasing Teacher Diversity

Research indicates that educator diversity can improve student achievement and help close achievement gaps. For example, one study found that Black students randomly assigned to at least one Black teacher in grades K-3 were nearly 19% more likely to enroll in college than their same-school, same-race peers.

  • The Administration is prioritizing efforts to increase educator diversity across 15 competitive grant programs that support teacher preparation, development, recruitment, and retention. These programs awarded nearly $450 million to 263 grantees, 92 percent of which were to grantees that addressed specific priorities related to educator diversity.
  • The Administration secured and awarded a total of more than $23 million in first-time ever funding for the Augustus F. Hawkins Centers of Excellence Grant program which provides grants to Historically Black Colleges and Universities (HBCUs), Tribally Controlled Colleges and Universities (TCCUs), and Minority Serving Institutions (MSIs) for teacher preparation programs to increase the number of well-prepared teachers, including teachers of color and multilingual educators.

Strengthening School Diversity

  • During this Administration, the Department of Education is investing more than $300 million in programs that increase school diversity This includes increased investment in the Magnet Schools Assistance Program (MSAP), which aims to reduce racial isolation, including by creating highly effective schools, and the creation of the Fostering Diverse Schools Demonstration Program (FDS), a new initiative to increase school socioeconomic diversity, which awarded more than $14 million in new grants.
  • In August 2023 after the Supreme Court effectively ended affirmative action in college admissions, the Department of Education released a Dear Colleague Letter on Race and School Programming to guide schools on lawful programs to promote racially inclusive school communities and, along with the Department of Justice, a Dear Colleague Letter and a Questions and Answers Resource to help colleges and universities understand the Supreme Court’s decision as they continue to pursue campuses that are racially diverse and that include students with a range of viewpoints, talents, backgrounds, and experiences. The Department of Education published a resource summarizing specific guidance describing Federal legal obligations to ensure that all students have equal access to education regardless of race, color, or national origin.
  • The Department of Education issued a new rule requiring, among other things, many Charter School Program applicants to assure that proposed charter schools would not negatively affect any desegregation efforts in the communities in which charters are to be located.

Closing the School Readiness Gap

Because of the legacy of discrimination, Black children start school on average nearly seven months behind their white peers in reading. One study finds that one year of universal high-quality pre-K could eliminate most of that gap. Others indicate that students who go to preschool are nearly 50% more likely to finish high school and go on to a college degree. Each of the President’s budgets have included proposals that would provide preschool to every four-year-old in the country. In addition:

  • President Biden has secured an additional $1.5 billion for Head Start and nearly a 50% increase in funding for the Child Care & Development Block Grant (CCDBG) program, which helps low-income families afford child care. Approximately 30% of children and families receiving high-quality Head Start services are Black and close to 40% of families benefiting from CCBDG are Black. 
  • The American Rescue Plan provided $24 billion to stabilize child care. Over 44% of programs that received assistance were owned or operated by people of color and 53% of providers receiving stabilization funds were operating in the most racially diverse counties.

The Department of Education released guidance on how districts can leverage the increases the President has secured for Title I to expand access to high-quality preschool services, including through partnerships with Head Start programs. This is the first Department of Education preschool guidance in more than a decade.

Biden Administration, Education

Biden Announces $7.4 Billion in Student Debt Cancellation for 277,000 More Americans, Pursuing Every Path Available to Cancel Student Debt

New debt cancellation for borrowers enrolled in SAVE, other Income-Driven Repayment plans, and Public Service Loan Forgiveness comes on the heels of President Biden announcing new plans that could benefit tens of millions of Americans. This latest round of debt cancellation means that $153 billion in student debt relief has been provided for 4.3 million Americans. New plans announced by Biden would cancel student debt for over 30 million when implemented. These state-by-state fact sheets have been provided by the White House:

New debt cancellation for borrowers enrolled in SAVE, other Income-Driven Repayment plans, and Public Service Loan Forgiveness comes on the heels of President Biden announcing new plans that could benefit tens of millions of Americans. This latest round of debt cancellation means that $153 billion in student debt relief has been provided for 4.3 million Americans. © Karen Rubin/news-photos-features.com

President Biden announced that 277,000 more Americans will get their student debt canceled, bringing the total debt relief approved by the Biden-Harris Administration to $153 billion for 4.3 million Americans through various actions. This latest round of debt cancellation comes on the heels of President Biden announcing new plans that, if implemented, would cancel student debt for over 30 million Americans when combined with actions the Administration has taken over the last three years. These announcements reinforce the President’s commitment to using every path available to deliver student debt relief to as many borrowers as possible through various actions.

The 277,000 Americans receiving this latest round of debt relief are borrowers enrolled in the SAVE Plan, other borrowers enrolled in Income-Driven Repayment plans, and borrowers receiving Public Service Loan Forgiveness. The Biden-Harris Administration fixed Income-Driven Repayment (IDR) and launched the SAVE Plan last year – the most affordable repayment plan ever. Already 8 million borrowers are enrolled in SAVE, 4.5 million of those borrowers have a monthly payment of $0, and over 1 million additional borrowers have a monthly payment of less than $100. And if borrowers took out low balances of loans, the SAVE Plan puts them on a faster path to debt relief after at least ten years of payments.

Since President Biden took office, his Administration has approved over $54 billion in debt cancellation for 1.3 million borrowers enrolled in income-driven repayment plans, including the new SAVE Plan. This builds on additional actions the Biden-Harris Administration has taken to cancel debt for nearly 900,000 public service workers, 1.3 million borrowers cheated by their schools or borrowers covered by related court settlements, and nearly 550,000 borrowers with a total and permanent disability, including many veterans.

While the Administration continues to cancel Americans’ student debt through improving existing forgiveness programs and through the SAVE Plan, the Biden-Harris Administration is also pursuing new plans that, if implemented, would cancel student debt for tens of millions more. Earlier this week, the President announced his Administration’s alternative path to debt cancellation in the wake of last year’s Supreme Court decision. Learn more about these plans at StudentAid.gov/DebtRelief.

State Fact Sheets:

Biden Administration, Education, News & Photo Features

FACT SHEET: President Biden Cancels Student Debt for 150,000 Student Loan Borrowers; 3.9 Million Already Eligible for $138 Billion in Relief

From Day 1, the President vowed to fix the broken loan system and make sure education was a pathway to the middle class, not a barrier,” a White House spokesperson stated. © Karen Rubin/news-photos-features.com

This fact sheet provided by the White House documents the latest efforts by the Biden Administration to relieve the burden of student debt. It is the latest in more than 25 actions that have resulted in $138 billion in student debt cancellation for almost 3.9 million borrowers.

“From Day 1, the President vowed to fix the broken loan system and make sure education was a pathway to the middle class, not a barrier,” a White House spokesperson stated. “ He has cancelled more student debt than any president – $138 billion for 3.9 million – fixing public service loan forgiveness, affecting 800,000 nurses, firefighters, teachers and others. Before, only 7,000 got relief. He has held colleges accountable for defrauding borrowers who paid over 20 years but never got the relief they were entitled to. The President’s actions have allowed over 4 million to afford homes, businesses, pursue the dreams they had to put on hold because of student loan, but are no longer weighed down by burden of student debt.” – Karen Rubin/news-photos-features.com

Today, President Biden announced the approval of $1.2 billion in student debt cancellation for almost 153,000 borrowers currently enrolled in the Saving on a Valuable Education (SAVE) repayment plan. The Biden-Harris Administration has now approved nearly $138 billion in student debt cancellation for almost 3.9 million borrowers through more than two dozen executive actions. The borrowers receiving relief are the first to benefit from a SAVE plan policy that provides debt forgiveness to borrowers who have been in repayment after as little as 10 years and took out $12,000 or less in student loans. Originally planned for July, the Biden-Harris Administration implemented this provision of SAVE and is providing relief to borrowers nearly six months ahead of schedule.

From Day One of his Administration, President Biden vowed to fix the student loan system and make sure higher education is a pathway to the middle class – not a barrier to opportunity. Already, the President has cancelled more student debt than any President in history – delivering life-changing relief to students and families – and has created the most affordable student loan repayment plan ever: the SAVE plan. While Republicans in Congress and their allies try to block President Biden every step of the way, the Biden-Harris Administration continues to cancel student debt for millions of borrowers, and is leaving no stone unturned in the fight to give more borrowers breathing room on their student loans.

Thanks to the Biden-Harris Administration’s SAVE plan, starting today, the Administration will be cancelling debt for borrowers who are enrolled in the SAVE plan, have been in repayment for at least 10 years and took out $12,000 or less in loans for college. For every additional $1,000 a borrower initially borrowed, they will receive relief after an additional year of payments. For example, a borrower enrolled in SAVE who took out $14,000 or less in federal loans to earn an associate’s degree in biotechnology would receive full debt relief starting this week if they have been in repayment for 12 years. The U.S. Department of Education (Department) identified nearly 153,000 borrowers who are enrolled in SAVE plan who will have their debt cancelled starting this week, and those borrowers will receive an email today from President Biden informing them of their imminent relief. Next week, the Department of Education will also be reaching out directly to borrowers who are eligible for early relief but not currently enrolled in the SAVE Plan to encourage them to enroll as soon as possible.
 
This shortened time to forgiveness will particularly help community college and other borrowers with smaller loans and put many on track to being free of student debt faster than ever before. Under the Biden-Harris Administration’s SAVE plan, 85 percent of future community college borrowers will be debt free within 10 years. The Department will continue to regularly identify and discharge other borrowers eligible for relief under this provision on SAVE.
 
Over four million borrowers have a $0 monthly payment under the SAVE Plan

Last year, President Biden launched the SAVE plan – the most affordable repayment plan ever. Under the SAVE plan, monthly payments are based on a borrower’s income and family size, not their loan balance. The SAVE plan ensures that if borrowers are making their monthly payments, their balances cannot grow because of unpaid interest. And, starting in July, undergraduate loan payments will be cut in half, capping a borrower’s loan payment at 5% of their discretionary income. Already, 7.5 million borrowers are enrolled in the SAVE Plan, and 4.3 million borrowers have a $0 monthly payment.  

Today, the White House Council of Economic Advisers released an issue brief highlighting how low and middle-income borrowers enrolled in SAVE could see significant saving in terms of interest saved over time and principal forgiven as a result of SAVE’s early forgiveness provisions.



President Biden’s Administration has approved student debt relief for nearly 3.9 million Americans through various actions

Today’s announcement builds on the Biden-Harris Administration’s track record of taking historic action to cancel student debt for millions of borrowers. Since taking office, the Biden-Harris Administration has approved debt cancellation for nearly 3.9 million Americans, totaling almost $138 billion in debt relief through various actions. This relief has given borrowers critical breathing room in their daily lives, allowing them to afford other expenses, buy homes, start businesses, or pursue dreams they had to put on hold because of the burden of student loan debt. President Biden remains committed to providing debt relief to as many borrowers as possible, and won’t stop fighting to deliver relief to more Americans.

The Biden-Harris Administration has also taken historic steps to improve the student loan program and make higher education more affordable for more Americans, including:

  • Achieving the largest increases in Pell Grants in over a decade to help families who earn less than $60,000 a year achieve their higher-education goals.
     
  • Fixing the Public Service Loan Forgiveness program so that borrowers who go into public service get the debt relief they’re entitled to under the law. Before President Biden took office, only 7,000 people ever received debt relief through PSLF. After fixing the program, the Biden-Harris Administration has now cancelled student loan debt for nearly 800,000 public service workers.
     
  • Cancelling student loan debt for more than 930,000 borrowers who have been in repayment for over 20 years but never got the relief they earned because of administrative failures with Income-Driven Repayment Plans.
     
  • Pursuing an alternative path to deliver student debt relief to as many borrowers as possible in the wake of the Supreme Court’s decision striking down the Administration’s original debt relief plan. Last week, the Department of Education released proposed regulatory text to cancel student debt for borrowers who are experiencing hardship paying back their student loans, and late last year released proposals to cancel student debt for borrowers who: owe more than they borrowed, first entered repayment 20 or 25 years ago, attended low quality programs, and who would be eligible for loan forgiveness through income-driven repayment programs like SAVE but have not applied.
     
  • Holding colleges accountable for leaving students with unaffordable debts.

It’s easy to enroll in SAVE. Borrowers should go to studentaid.gov/save to start saving.

Biden Administration, Education, Financial Protection

FACT SHEET: Biden-Harris Administration Launches SAVE Plan to Lower Monthly Student Loan Payments for Millions of Borrowers

 “I am a firm believer in education beyond high school —- and that should be a ticket to the middle-class, not a burden that weighs people down for decades to come trying to pay their debt,” declared President Biden, introducing the SAVE Plan to reduce student debt. “On Day One of my Administration, I promised to fix the problems of the existing student loan program that hurt borrowers for much too long. And I’m proud we’re keeping that promise.” © Karen Rubin/goingplacesfarandnear.com

The Biden-Harris Administration believes that education beyond high school should unlock doors to opportunity, not leave borrowers stranded with debt they cannot afford. That’s why, from day one, President Biden and Vice President Harris have been working to fix the broken student loan system and make college more affordable. Today, the Biden-Harris Administration announced the official launch of the most affordable repayment plan ever created – the Saving on a Valuable Education (SAVE) plan and kicked off an outreach campaign to encourage eligible borrowers to sign up for the plan.

“On Day One of my Administration, I promised to fix the problems of the existing student loan program that hurt borrowers for much too long.
And I’m proud we’re keeping that promise,” President Biden declared. “We’ve already approved over $116 billion in debt cancellation for 3.4 million Americans, no matter how many lawsuits, challenges, or roadblocks Republican elected officials or special interests tried to put in our way. And today I’m proud to announce a new program called the SAVE Plan. It’s the most affordable student loan plan ever.”
 
The SAVE plan is an income-driven repayment (IDR) plan that calculates payments based on a borrower’s income and family size – not their loan balance – and forgives remaining balances after a certain number of years. The SAVE plan will cut many borrowers’ monthly payments to zero, will save other borrowers around $1,000 per year, will prevent balances from growing because of unpaid interest, and will get more borrowers closer to forgiveness faster. The SAVE plan builds on the actions the Biden-Harris Administration has already taken to support students and borrowers, including cancelling more than $116 billion in student loan debt for 3.4 million Americans. 
 
The Biden-Harris Administration estimates that over 20 million borrowers could benefit from the SAVE plan. Borrowers can sign up today by visiting StudentAid.gov/SAVE
 
Specifically, the SAVE plan will:

  • Cut payments on undergraduate loans in half. Borrowers with undergraduate loans will have their payments reduced from 10% to 5% of their discretionary income. Those who have undergraduate and graduate loans will pay a weighted average between 5% and 10% of their income based upon the original principal balances of their loans.
    • Bring many borrowers’ loan payments to $0 per month. A borrower’s monthly payment amount is based on their discretionary income—defined under the SAVE plan as the difference between their adjusted gross income (AGI) and 225% of the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services Poverty Guideline amount for their family size. This means a single borrower who makes about $15 an hour will not have to make any monthly payments. Borrowers earning above that amount would save around $1,000 a year on their payments compared to other IDR plans. The Department of Education estimates that more than 1 million additional low-income borrowers will qualify for a $0 payment. This will allow them to focus on food, rent, and other basic needs instead of loan payments.
       
    • Ensure that borrowers never see their balance grow as long as they keep up with their required payments. The Department of Education will stop charging any monthly interest not covered by the borrower’s payment on the SAVE plan. As a result, borrowers who pay what they owe on this plan will no longer see their loans grow due to unpaid interest. For example, if a borrower has $50 in interest that accumulates each month and their payment is $30 per month under the new SAVE plan, the remaining $20 would not be charged as long as they make their $30 monthly payment. The Department of Education estimates that 70 percent of borrowers who were on an IDR plan before the payment pause would stand to benefit from this change. Coinciding with the launch of the SAVE plan, the White House Council of Economic Advisers released a new blog post that models how the income benefit of the SAVE plan could prevent a lower-income borrowers’ balance from increasing by nearly 78% over a 20-year repayment period.
       
    • Provide early forgiveness for low-balance borrowers. IDR plans require all borrowers, even those who only attended school for a single term, to repay their loans for at least 20 or 25 years before receiving forgiveness of any outstanding balance. Under the SAVE plan, borrowers whose original principal balances were $12,000 or less will receive forgiveness after 120 payments (the equivalent of 10 years in repayment). For each additional $1,000 borrowed above that level, the plan adds an additional 12 payments (equivalent of 1 year of payments) for up to a maximum of 20 or 25 years. For example, if a borrower’s original principal balance is $14,000, they will see forgiveness after 12 years. Payments made previously (before 2024) and those made going forward will count toward these maximum forgiveness timeframes.

The benefits of the SAVE plan will be particularly critical for low- and middle-income borrowers, community college students, and borrowers who work in public service. Overall, the Department of Education estimates that the plan will have the following effects for future cohorts of borrowers compared to the IDR plan, called the Revised Pay-As-You-Earn (REPAYE) plan:

  • Borrowers will see their total payments per dollar borrowed fall by 40%. Borrowers with the lowest projected lifetime earnings will see payments per dollar borrowed fall by 83%, while those in the top would only see a 5% reduction.
    • A typical graduate of a four-year public university will save nearly $2,000 a year.
    • A first-year teacher with a bachelor’s degree will see a two-third reduction in total payments, saving more than $17,000, while pursuing Public Service Loan Forgiveness.
    • 85% of community college borrowers will be debt-free within 10 years because of the early forgiveness for low-balance borrowers provision of the plan.
    • On average, Black, Hispanic, American Indian and Alaska Native borrowers will see their total lifetime payments per dollar borrowed cut in half.

Borrowers who are already on the REPAYE plan will be automatically enrolled in the SAVE plan and see their payments automatically adjust with no action on their part.
 
Department of Education Launches Outreach Campaign

To encourage borrowers to sign up for the new SAVE plan, the Department of Education is partnering with grassroots organizations to launch an outreach campaign, “SAVE on Student Debt”. The campaign will leverage strategic partnerships across public, private, and nonprofit sectors to help borrowers take full advantage of the benefits provided by the SAVE plan, as well as ensure borrowers know about other resources and debt forgiveness programs available from the Department. This partnership will be led by the Department in collaboration with Civic Nation, the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP), the National Urban League (NUL), Rise, the Student Debt Crisis Center, UnidosUS, and Young Invincibles.
 
The outreach campaign will build on the direct outreach underway by the Department of Education and Federal Student Aid to ensure borrowers know about the SAVE plan and other programs to help them access debt relief. In the coming days, the Department will contact nearly 30 million borrowers to invite them to apply for the SAVE plan. The direct-to-borrower communication will highlight how the new IDR application takes less than 10 minutes to fill out. The “SAVE on Student Debt” campaign and direct-to-borrower communications will also focus on enrolling borrowers into SAVE who will benefit the most from the plan but are often hardest to reach. Importantly, the new SAVE plan lowers barriers that previously stood in the way of higher enrollment rates of other IDR plans by streamlining repayment options, automatically enrolling delinquent borrowers who have given consent to access their tax information into the plan, and eliminating the need to manually recertify their income each year. This is part of the Department’s broader improvements to the student loan system and robust outreach campaign to support borrowers when the payment pause ends this fall.
 
Broader Efforts to Deliver Relief to Student Loan Borrowers

The SAVE plan builds on broader actions by the Biden-Harris Administration to deliver relief to student loan borrowers, fix problems in the student loan system, and make college more affordable. To date, the Biden-Harris Administration has cancelled more than $116 billion in student loan debt for 3.4 million Americans, including:

  • $39 billion for 804,000 borrowers as a result of fixes to IDR plans who have been in repayment for over 20 years but never got the relief they deserved
    • $45.7 billion for 662,000 public service workers
    • $10.5 billion for 491,000 borrowers who have a total and permanent disability; and
    • $22 billion for nearly 1.3 million borrowers who were cheated by their schools, saw their schools precipitously close, or are covered by related court settlements.

The Administration has also achieved the largest increases in Pell Grants in over a decade to help families who earn less than roughly $60,000 per year; fixed the Public Service Loan Forgiveness program so borrowers who go into public service get the debt relief they are entitled to; is holding colleges accountable for leaving students with mountains of debt and without good job prospects; and announced that it is pursuing an alternative path to deliver debt relief to as many student loan borrowers as possible, as quickly as possible in the wake of the Supreme Court’s decision on the Administration’s student debt relief plan.

Biden Administration, Cybersecurity, Education, News & Photo Features

Biden-Harris Administration Launches New Efforts to Strengthen America’s K-12 Schools’ Cybersecurity

Biden-Harris Administration announces new actions and private commitments to bolster the nation’s cyber defense at schools and protect American families
 
Administration leaders, school administrators, educators, and education technology providers will convene at the White House to discuss how to strengthen the nation’s schools’ cybersecurity amidst growing ransomware attacks
 

Biden-Harris Administration announced new actions and private commitments to bolster the nation’s cyber defense at schools and protect American families © Karen Rubin/news-photos-features.com

The United States has experienced an increase in cyberattacks that have targeted the nation’s schools in recent years.  In the 2022-23 academic year alone, at least eight K-12 school districts throughout the country were impacted by significant cyberattacks – four of which left schools having to cancel classes or close completely.  Not only have these attacks disrupted school operations, but they also have impacted students, their families, teachers, and administrators.  Sensitive personal information – including, student grades, medical records, documented home issues, behavioral information, and financial information – of students and employees were stolen and publicly disclosed. Additionally, sensitive information about school security systems was leaked online as a result of these attacks.

Secretary of Education Miguel Cardona and Secretary of Homeland Security Alejandro Mayorkas, joined First Lady Jill Biden, to convene school administrators, educators and private sector companies to discuss best practices and new resources available to strengthen our schools’ cybersecurity, protect American families and schools, and prevent cyberattacks from disrupting our classrooms.
 
According to a 2022 U.S. Government Accountability Office report, the loss of learning following a cyberattack ranged from three days to three weeks, and recovery time can take anywhere from two to nine months.  Further, the monetary losses to school districts following a cyber incident ranged from $50,000 to $1 million. That is why the Biden-Harris Administration has had a relentless focus on securing our nation’s critical infrastructure since day one, and continues to work tirelessly to provide resources that enable the U.S.’s more than 13,000 school districts to better protect and defend their students and employees against cyberattacks.
 
The Administration is taking additional action and committing resources to strengthen the cybersecurity of the nation’s K-12 school systems, including: 

  • Federal Communications Commission Chairwoman Jessica Rosenworcel is proposing establishing a pilot program under the Universal Service Fund to provide up to $200 million over three years to strengthen cyber defenses in K-12 schools and libraries in tandem with other federal agencies that have deep expertise in cybersecurity.
     
  • The U.S. Department of Education will establish a Government Coordinating Council (GCC) that will coordinate activities, policy, and communications between, and amongst, federal, state, local, tribal, and territorial education leaders to strengthen the cyber defenses and resilience of K-12 schools. By facilitating formal, ongoing collaboration between all levels of government and the education sector, the GCC will be a key first step in the Department’s strategy to protect schools and districts from cybersecurity threats and for supporting districts in preparing for, responding to, and recovering from cybersecurity attacks.
     
  • The U.S. Department of Education and the Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency (CISA) jointly released K-12 Digital Infrastructure Brief: Defensible & Resilient, the second in a series of guidance documents to assist educational leaders in building and sustaining core digital infrastructure for learning.  Additional briefs released by the U.S. Department of Education include Adequate and Future-Proof and Privacy-Enhancing, Interoperable and Useful.
     
  • CISA is committing to providing tailored assessments, facilitating exercises, and delivering cybersecurity training for 300 new K-12 entities over the coming school year.  CISA plans to conduct 12 K-12 cyber exercises this year, averaging one per month, and is currently soliciting exercise requests from government and critical infrastructure partners, including the K-12 community.
     
  • The Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) and the National Guard Bureau are releasing updated resource guides to ensure state government and education officials know how to report cybersecurity incidents and can leverage the federal government’s cyber defense capabilities.

Additionally, several education technology providers are committing to providing free and low-cost resources to school districts, including:

  • Amazon Web Services (AWS) is committing the following: $20 million for a K-12 cyber grant program available to all school districts and state departments of education; free security training offerings tailored to K-12 IT staff delivered through AWS Skill Builder; and no-cost cyber incident response assistance through its Customer Incident Response Team in the event a school district experiences a cyberattack.  AWS will also provide free well-architected security reviews to U.S. education technology companies providing mission-critical applications to the K-12 community.
     
  • Cloudflare, through its Project Cybersafe Schools, will offer a suite of free Zero Trust cybersecurity solutions to public school districts under 2,500 students, to give small school districts faster, safer Internet browsing and email security.
     
  • PowerSchool, a provider of cloud-based K-12 software in the United States for 80% of school districts, will provide new free and subsidized “security as a service” courses, training, tools and resources to all U.S. schools and districts.
     
  • Google released an updated “K-12 Cybersecurity Guidebook” for schools on the most effective and impactful steps education systems can take to ensure the security of their Google hardware and software applications.
     
  • D2L, a learning platform company, is committing to: providing access to new cybersecurity courses in collaboration with trusted third-parties; extending its information security review for the core D2L integration partners; and pursuing additional third-party validation of D2L compliance with security standards.

The commitments made today will help ensure the nation’s schools are in the best position to secure their networks to keep their students, educators, and employees safe. This is the latest example of President Biden’s commitment to ease the everyday concerns facing Americans – from strengthening confidence in the safety of the devices brought into homes and classrooms to securing the cyber infrastructure of our nation’s schools. 

Biden Administration, Education, News & Photo Features

FACT SHEET: President Biden Announces Actions to Promote Educational Opportunity and Diversity in Colleges and Universities

Because access to higher education has been a means of breaking self-perpetuating cycles of poverty, and enabling those without the same advantages to fulfill their potential, affirmative action has been an excellent tool – in the absence of actual reparations – to redress the systemic barriers. The extremist ChristoFascist Supreme Court supermajority has ended affirmative action, calling it “unconstitutional” discrimination. It is part of a crusade to undo 50 years of policies aimed at promoting diversity, inclusion and equality. © Karen Rubin/news-photos-features.com

Because access to higher education has been a means of breaking self-perpetuating cycles of poverty, and enabling those without the same advantages to fulfill their potential, affirmative action has been an excellent tool – in the absence of actual reparations – to redress the systemic barriers. The extremist ChristoFascist Supreme Court supermajority has ended affirmative action, calling it “unconstitutional” discrimination. It is part of a crusade to undo 50 years of policies aimed at promoting diversity, inclusion and equality.

Here is a Fact Sheet from the White House on actions President Biden is taking to promote educational opportunity and diversity in colleges and universities: –Karen Rubin/news-photos-features.com

Today, the Supreme Court upended decades of precedent that enabled America’s colleges and universities to build vibrant diverse environments where students are prepared to lead and learn from one another. Although the Court’s decision threatens to move the country backwards, the Biden-Harris Administration will fight to preserve the hard-earned progress we have made to advance racial equity and civil rights and expand educational opportunity for all Americans.
 
As our nation’s colleges and universities consider their admissions processes in the wake of the Court’s decision, President Biden is calling on them to seize the opportunity to expand access to educational opportunity for all. Our nation is stronger when our colleges and universities reflect the vast and rich diversity of our people. But while talent, creativity, and hard work are everywhere across this country, equal opportunity is not.
 
Specifically, the President is calling on colleges and universities, when selecting among qualified applicants, to give serious consideration to the adversities students have overcome, including:

  • the financial means of a student or their family;
  • where a student grew up and went to high school; and
  • personal experiences of hardship or discrimination, including racial discrimination, that a student may have faced.

In doing so, colleges and universities can fully value aspiring students who demonstrate resilience and determination in the face of deep challenges.
 
The Biden-Harris Administration is taking swift action to support our Nation’s colleges and universities so they can continue building pathways to upward mobility and success for all students to thrive in the American workforce and our Nation’s military. Specifically, the Biden-Harris Administration is:

  • Providing colleges and universities with clarity on what admissions practices and additional programs to support students remain lawful. The Department of Education and Department of Justice will provide resources to colleges and universities addressing lawful admissions practices within the next 45 days, as colleges prepare for the next application cycle. The Department of Education will also provide assistance to colleges and universities in administering programs to support students from underserved communities. 
  • Convening a National Summit on Educational Opportunity. The Department of Education will host a national summit on equal opportunity in postsecondary education next month with advocates, student leaders, college and university administrators, researchers, and state, local, and Tribal leaders to share lessons learned, innovative strategies, and develop additional resources for colleges and students to expand access to educational opportunity.
  • Releasing a report on strategies for increasing diversity and educational opportunity, including meaningful consideration of adversity. Following the Summit, the Department of Education will produce a report by this September, elevating promising admissions practices to build inclusive, diverse student bodies, including by using measures of adversity. The report will address topics including the impact of current admissions practices that may negatively affect the admissions chances of students from underserved communities; strategies to integrate measures of adversity in admissions; outreach and recruitment programs to create diverse applicant pools; strategies for retention and degree completion; and financial and other support programs to make college attainable.
  • Increasing transparency in college admissions and enrollment practices. The Administration is committed to providing transparent data with respect to admissions and enrollment. The Department of Education’s National Center for Educational Statistics will consider ways to collect and publish more information related to college application and enrollment trends. This includes ways that information might be validly disaggregated by race and ethnicity, first-generation status, legacy status, and other measures. Information in these areas could help higher education leaders, academics and the general public address potential barriers to college recruitment, admissions, and enrollment.
  • Supporting states in analyzing data to increase access to educational opportunity for underserved communities. The Department of Education will assist states and Tribal nations in marshaling their data to improve college recruitment, admissions, and financial aid practices to devise strategies for increasing access to educational opportunity, such as partnerships to appropriately share and use education data, and direct admissions programs that proactively admit students based on factors such as academic performance and students’ geographic location – without requiring them to apply or pay an application fee. 

This work builds upon the Biden-Harris Administration’s historic efforts to ensure all students have the opportunity to access higher education by:

  • Securing a historic increase in the Pell Grants: The President championed the largest increase to Pell Grants in the last decade – a combined increase of $900 to the maximum award over the past two years to benefit low – and middle-income students.
  • Prioritizing college completion: The Biden-Harris Administration has championed efforts to improve postsecondary outcomes, particularly for students who face the greatest barriers to accessing and completing college. In response to the President Biden’s budget, Congress established a new Postsecondary Student Success Grant program to provide direct support to institutions to engage in evidence-based activities that support college re-enrollment, retention, and completion among individuals who are close to graduation.
  • Supporting America’s Minority-Serving Institutions: President Biden has secured historic investments in institutions that enroll and graduate disproportionate shares of low-income students and students of color, including tens of billions of dollars in funding for Historically Black Colleges and Universities, Tribal Colleges and Universities, and Minority Serving Institutions, including Hispanic Serving Institutions through the Department of Education.
  • Fixing the broken student loan system: The Biden-Harris Administration has taken action to make the student loan system more manageable for current and future borrowers and reduce the burden of student debt, including by:
    • Cutting monthly payments in half for undergraduate loans. The Department of Education is proposing an income-driven repayment plan that protects more low-income borrowers from making any payments and caps monthly payments for undergraduate loans at 5% of a borrower’s discretionary income – half of the rate that borrowers must pay now under existing plans. The average annual student loan payment will be lowered by more than $1,000 for both current and future student borrowers who owe payments.
    • Fixing the broken Public Service Loan Forgiveness (PSLF) program by ensuring that borrowers who have worked at a qualifying nonprofit organization, in the military, or in federal, state, Tribal, or local government, receive appropriate credit towards loan forgiveness. These regulatory changes build on temporary changes the Department of Education made to PSLF, under which roughly 616,000 public servants received more than $42 billion in loan forgiveness.
    • Ensuring targeted student loan forgiveness programs work. Including its reforms to PSLF, the Department of Education has approved a total of more than $66 billion in relief to over 2.2 million student loan borrowers, including many who were defrauded by their college, enrolled in a college that abruptly closed, or are permanently disabled and unable to work.


Vice President Harris on the Supreme Court’s ruling in Students for Fair Admissions v. Harvard and Students for Fair Admissions v. University of North Carolina
 

Today’s Supreme Court decision in Students for Fair Admissions v. Harvard and Students for Fair Admissions v. University of North Carolina is a step backward for our nation. It rolls back long-established precedent and will make it more difficult for students from underrepresented backgrounds to have access to opportunities that will help them fulfill their full potential.
 
It is well established that all students benefit when classrooms and campuses reflect the incredible diversity of our Nation. Colleges and universities provide opportunities for students to interact with Americans from all walks of life and learn from one another. By making our schools less diverse, this ruling will harm the educational experience for all students.
 
Our Nation’s colleges and universities educate and train the next generation of American leaders. Students who sit in classrooms today will be the leaders of our government, military, private sector, and academic institutions tomorrow. Today’s decision will impact our country for decades to come.
 
In the wake of this decision, we must work with ever more urgency to make sure that all of our young people have an opportunity to thrive. 

Biden Administration, Economic Policies, Economy, Education, News & Photo Features

FACT SHEET: Biden Announces New Actions to Provide Debt Relief and Support for Student Loan Borrowers

A college diploma was supposed to be a ticket into the middle class, instead of the poor house. After the extremists on the Supreme Court declared President Biden’s student loan forgiveness program “unconstitutional” he took immediate steps to provide support, while vowing to pursue other means. © Karen Rubin/news-photos-features.com

No President has fought harder for student debt relief than President Biden, and he’s not done yet. “President Biden will not let Republican elected officials succeed in denying hardworking Americans the relief they need,” the White House stated. Biden gets it. He understands how lives are being upended, derailed, ambitions curtailed, because of crippling student loan debt that, as a reminder, is the ONLY DEBT that cannot be erased through bankruptcy. Think about it, how many Republican Congressmembers took advantage of COVID relief loan forgiveness, intended to help employers retain workers, but can’t find a way of making the loan obligation fair, when interest rates for others were at near zero. If they don’t allow forgiveness of the entire loan, they should get rid of the onerous, unjustified interest that is compounding, and provide a fair means to repay the principle.

For so many, a college degree has been their ticket into the middle class, home ownership, a legacy for their children, and a means of finally ending the cycle of poverty. College tuition has been increasing an ungodly rates, two and three times the cost of living – because the colleges can – which is why the balances for loan repayment are so high. Biden sought to address the injustice and the imbalance by giving student borrowers the same advantage he gave businesses to stay afloat and prevent the economic hardship of the historic pandemic from becoming a Greater Great Depression.

Here is a fact sheet of new actions Biden is taking to provide debt relief and support for student loan borrowers –Karen Rubin/news-photos-features.com
 
In light of the Supreme Court’s ruling this morning, President Biden and his Administration have already taken two steps this afternoon aimed at providing debt relief for as many borrowers as possible, as fast as possible, and supporting student loan borrowers:

  • The Secretary of Education initiated a rulemaking process aimed at opening an alternative path to debt relief for as many working and middle-class borrowers as possible, using the Secretary’s authority under the Higher Education Act.
     
  • The Department of Education (Department) finalized the most affordable repayment plan ever created, ensuring that borrowers will be able to take advantage of this plan this summer—before loan payments are due. This plan helps the typical borrower save more than $1,000 a year.

In addition, to protect the most vulnerable borrowers from the worst consequences of missed payments following the payment restart, the Department is instituting a 12-month “on-ramp” to repayment, running from October 1, 2023 to September 30, 2024, so that financially vulnerable borrowers who miss monthly payments during this period are not considered delinquent, reported to credit bureaus, placed in default, or referred to debt collection agencies.

These actions reflect the President’s belief that an education beyond high school should be a ticket to the middle class. It also builds on the unprecedented steps President Biden and his Administration have taken to make college more affordable for working and middle-class families and make federal student loans more manageable. The Biden-Harris Administration has:

  • Secured the largest increases to Pell Grants in a decade.
     
  • Fixed broken student loan programs such as Public Service Loan Forgiveness, so borrowers actually get the relief they deserve.
     
  • Approved more than $66 billion in loan cancellation for 2.2 million borrowers across the country, including public service workers and those who have been defrauded by their colleges.
     

Debt Relief for As Many Borrowers as Possible, as Fast as Possible
 
The President remains committed to providing relief to low- and middle-income borrowers. For too many Americans, a ticket to the middle-class remains out of reach because of unmanageable student loan debt. COVID-19 exacerbated that challenge – risking tens of millions of borrowers’ financial security and futures because of the economic harms brought on by a once-in-a-century pandemic.
 
Today, the Department initiated rulemaking aimed at opening an alternative path to debt relief for as many borrowers as possible, using the Secretary of Education’s authority under the Higher Education Act. The Department issued a notice, which is the first step in the process of issuing new regulations under this so-called “negotiated rulemaking” process. The notice announces a virtual public hearing on July 18th and solicits written comments from stakeholders on topics to consider.
 
Following the public hearing, the Department will finalize the issues to be addressed through rulemaking and begin the negotiated rulemaking sessions this fall. The Department will complete this rulemaking as quickly as possible.

 
Lowering Monthly Payments
 
The Biden-Harris Administration today also finalized the most affordable repayment plan ever created, called the Saving on a Valuable Education (SAVE) plan. This income-driven repayment plan will cut borrowers’ monthly payments in half, help the typical borrower save more than $1,000 per year on payments, allow many borrowers to make $0 monthly payments, and ensure borrowers don’t see their balances grow from unpaid interest.
 
Specifically, the plan will:

  • For undergraduate loans, cut in half the amount that borrowers have to pay each month from 10% to 5% of discretionary income.
  • Raise the amount of income that is considered non-discretionary income and therefore is protected from repayment, guaranteeing that no borrower earning under 225% of the federal poverty level—about the annual equivalent of a $15 minimum wage for a single borrower—will have to make a monthly payment under this plan.
  • Forgive loan balances after 10 years of payments, instead of 20 years, for borrowers with original loan balances of $12,000 or less. The Department estimates that this reform will allow nearly all community college borrowers to be debt-free within 10 years.
  • Not charge borrowers with unpaid monthly interest, so that unlike other existing income-driven repayment plans, no borrower’s loan balance will grow as long as they make their monthly payments—even when that monthly payment is $0 because their income is low.

All student borrowers in repayment will be eligible to enroll in the SAVE plan. They will be able to enroll later this summer, before any monthly payments are due. Borrowers who sign up or are already signed up for the current Revised Pay as You Earn (REPAYE) plan will be automatically enrolled in SAVE once the new plan is implemented. To learn more about the new SAVE plan, visit the Department of Education’s website.

 
Ensuring Support for Borrowers Most at Risk
 
To protect the most vulnerable borrowers, the Department is creating a temporary “on-ramp” to protect borrowers from the harshest consequences of late, missed, or partial payments for up to 12 months. While payments will be due and interest will accrue during this period, interest will not capitalize at the end of the on-ramp period. Additionally, borrowers will not be reported to credit bureaus, be considered in default, or referred to collection agencies for late, missed, or partial payments during the on-ramp period. Future monthly bills for borrowers not enrolled in an income-driven repayment plan will be automatically adjusted to reflect the accrued interest during those months.
 
Borrowers who can pay should do so, but this on-ramp period gives borrowers who cannot make payments right away the necessary time to adjust, enabling them to ultimately make their monthly payments and meet their financial obligations on their loans. Borrowers do not need to take any action to qualify for this on-ramp.

Biden Administration, Education

Biden Administration Introduces New Regulations to Reduce Cost of Federal Student Loan Payments

The Biden Administration’s proposed regulations for a Revised Pay As You Earn (REPAYE) plan would create the most affordable income-driven repayment (IDR) plan that has ever been made available to student loan borrowers, simplify the program, and eliminate common pitfalls that have historically delayed borrowers’ progress toward forgiveness and provide student debt relief to some 40 million borrowers © Karen Rubin/news-photos-features.com

Despite ongoing opposition by Republicans, President Joe Biden continues to introduce programs to relieve the burden of student loans. This is a fact sheet from the Department of Education describing a Revised Pay As You Earn (REPAYE) plan to provide student debt relief for 40 million borrowers:

Today, the U.S. Department of Education (Department) proposed regulations to reduce the cost of federal student loan payments, especially for low and middle-income borrowers. The regulations fulfill the commitment President Biden laid out in August when he announced his Administration’s plan to provide student debt relief for approximately 40 million borrowers and make the student loan system more manageable for student borrowers. The proposed regulations would create the most affordable income-driven repayment (IDR) plan that has ever been made available to student loan borrowers, simplify the program, and eliminate common pitfalls that have historically delayed borrowers’ progress toward forgiveness.  

“Today the Biden-Harris administration is proposing historic changes that would make student loan repayment more affordable and manageable than ever before,” said U.S. Secretary of Education Miguel Cardona. “We cannot return to the same broken system we had before the pandemic, when a million borrowers defaulted on their loans a year and snowballing interest left millions owing more than they initially borrowed. These proposed regulations will cut monthly payments for undergraduate borrowers in half and create faster pathways to forgiveness, so borrowers can better manage repayment, avoid delinquency and default, and focus on building brighter futures for themselves and their families.” 

The proposed regulations would amend the terms of the Revised Pay As You Earn (REPAYE) plan to offer $0 monthly payments for any individual borrower who makes less than roughly $30,600 annually and any borrower in a family of four who makes less than about $62,400. The regulations would also cut in half monthly payments on undergraduate loans for borrowers who do not otherwise have a $0 payment in this plan. The proposed regulations would also ensure that borrowers stop seeing their balances grow due to the accumulation of unpaid interest after making their monthly payments.  

While these regulations would provide critical relief to student borrowers, the Biden-Harris Administration is also committed to ensuring postsecondary institutions and programs are held accountable if they leave borrowers with unaffordable debts. The Department is currently working on a proposed gainful employment regulation that would cut off federal financial aid to career training programs that fail to provide sufficient financial value and require warnings for borrowers who attend any program that leaves graduates with excessive debts. The same regulatory package will also include proposals to strengthen the conditions that can be placed on institutions that fail to meet the requirements of the Higher Education Act or exhibit signs of risk.  

The Department is also taking steps today to carry out President Biden’s announcement from August that the Department would publish a list of the programs at all types of colleges and universities that provide the least financial value to students. To advance this effort, the Department is publishing a request for information to seek formal public feedback on the best way to identify the programs that provide the least financial value for students. This public comment process will ensure the Department is carefully considering a range of perspectives and considerations as it constructs the list. Once the list is published, institutions with programs on this list will be asked to submit improvement plans to the Department to improve their financial value.  

Estimated effects of the proposed IDR Plan 

The proposed regulatory changes would substantially reduce monthly debt burdens and lifetime payments, especially for low and middle-income borrowers, community college students, and borrowers who work in public service. Overall, the Department estimates that the plan would have the following effects compared to the existing REPAYE plan: 

  • Future cohorts of borrowers would see their total payments per dollar borrowed decrease by 40%. Borrowers with the lowest projected lifetime earnings would see payments that are 83% less, while those in the top would only see a 5% reduction. 
  • A typical graduate of a four-year public university would save nearly $2,000 a year relative to the current REPAYE plan. 
  • A first-year teacher with a bachelor’s degree would save more than $17,000 in total payments while pursuing Public Service Loan Forgiveness—a two-thirds reduction in what they would pay in total under REPAYE.  
  • 85% of community college borrowers would be debt-free within 10 years
  • On average, Black, Hispanic, American Indian and Alaska Native borrowers would see their lifetime payments per dollar borrowed cut in half. 

Building on an Unparalleled Record of Debt Relief 

The draft regulations build upon the work the Biden-Harris Administration has already done to improve the student loan program, make colleges more affordable, approve $48 billion in targeted relief to nearly 2 million student loan borrowers, and fight to provide up to $20,000 in one-time debt relief to over 40 million eligible borrowers, including 26 million who have already applied. These regulations also propose to build on the Administration’s commitment to ensuring IDR plans deliver relief to eligible borrowers. This includes ongoing steps to provide accurate counts of progress toward forgiveness for borrowers through a one-time account adjustment. 

The proposed regulations and request for information will be published in the Federal Register tomorrow. The public may comment on both documents through the Regulations.gov website for 30 days. The Department expects to finalize the rules later this year and aims to start implementing some provisions later this year, subject to any changes made based on public comments. 

View an unofficial copy of proposed IDR regulation here and a fact sheet with further information here. View an unofficial copy of the RFI here, and a fact sheet with further information here.

Fighting for Debt Relief at the Supreme Court

Since President Biden first announced his intention to cancel up to $20,000 in student loan debt for the vast majority of borrowers, opponents of student debt relief have filed legal challenges seeking to halt this effort. In December, the Supreme Court agreed to hear two of these challenges– Nebraska v. Biden (recaptioned Biden v. Nebraska at the Supreme Court), brought by Republican officials in Nebraska, Missouri, Kansas, South Carolina, Arkansas, and Iowa, and Brown v. Biden (recaptioned Biden v. Brown at the Supreme Court), a challenge brought by student loan borrowers in Texas and funded by a right-wing dark-money group. 

Today, an historic coalition of cities, states, experts, and advocates filed more than a dozen amicus curiae briefs with the U.S. Supreme Court in support of the Biden Administration’s student debt relief program. 

This week’s briefs support the Justice Department’s effort to defend this policy before the nation’s highest court. To date, more than 26 million Americans have applied for student debt relief and more than 40 million Americans are expected to benefit when this program is fully implemented.

Leaders and public officials join law scholars, economists, sociologists, higher education and public policy experts from across the political and ideological spectrum in briefing the high court. The briefs represent the breadth of communities that stand to benefit from student debt relief, including working people, borrowers of color, veterans, older people, people of faith, along with cities and states across the country. Together, these briefs showcase the broad support, strong legal foundation, and urgent economic necessity underpinning President Biden’s effort to cancel student debt for 40 million Americans.

Amici Curiae Quote Sheet is available here: https://protectborrowers.org/wp-content/uploads/2023/01/Student-Debt-Relief-Amici-Curiae-Quote-Sheet.pdf

Amici Curiae Summaries and Highlights are available here: https://protectborrowers.org/wp-content/uploads/2023/01/Student-Debt-Relief-Amici-Curiae-Summaries-and-Highlights.pdf

The amicus curiae briefs filed in support of the U.S. Department of Justice in Biden v. Nebraska and Biden v. Brown include: