President Joe Biden made student debt relief a focus of his administration.
The mass forgiveness he promised on the campaign trail was struck down by the Supreme Court, and some of his other debt relief initiatives, like the Saving on a Valuable Education plan and his negotiated rulemaking plan, are currently tied up in court.
But his administration has still managed to clear $166.5 billion in student loans, according to Department of Education data.
Through Public Service Loan Forgiveness, income-driven repayment — including a group of borrowers able to get forgiveness through the SAVE plan before it was blocked — total and permanent disability discharge and borrower defense to repayment discharges, about 4.4 million borrowers nationwide have had their debt waived under Biden. Borrowers had an average of $38,207 of debt forgiven.
“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,” Biden said in an October statement.
How much student debt has been forgiven in each state
Borrowers in the District of Columbia had more debt forgiven, on average, than any of the states. Roughly 15,000 residents there have had an average of nearly $53,000 in loans discharged per borrower under the Biden administration. It’s also worth noting that D.C. residents have the highest average student debt balances overall, owing an average of nearly $55,000, according to Education Data Initiative.
After D.C., Vermont, Maryland and New York had the most debt forgiven per borrower, on average. Vermont is the only state where the average forgiveness amount exceeds $50,000 per borrower.
The map below shows how many borrowers received loan forgiveness during the Biden administration in each state.
Paths to debt forgiveness
The bulk of Biden’s debt forgiveness came through existing programs like PSLF and borrower defense to repayment, the latter of which offers debt relief for borrowers who attended schools or educational programs that defrauded students though misrepresenting or outright lying about successful outcomes.
Though Biden didn’t create the relief programs, his administration made changes and updated processes to ensure students could actually see their loans discharged through these avenues.
Prior to his term in office, just 7,000 borrowers had ever received debt relief through PSLF, for example. And as of March 2021, just 32 borrowers of an estimated 2 million potentially eligible had received loan discharges through income-driven repayment, according to the National Consumer Law Center.
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