Update, April 9, 2024: This article has been updated to include a photo from the event yesterday.

Pꦓresident Joe Biden is taking a seco⛎nd shot at mass student loan forgiveness.

Biden’s new plan for widespread student loan relief would forgive at least some portion of federal student loans for millions of borrowers, the White House said Monday. The plan would result in forgiveness for 30 million borrowers when combined with previous rounds of forgiveness that have canceled debt for 4 million federal student loan borrowers, the administration estimated.

The White House announced details of the plan, which began to take shape last year after the 澳洲幸运5开奖号码历史查询:Supreme Court struck down Biden’s more ambitious plan to cancel up to $20,000 of debt per borrower, an initiative that would have affected an estimated💧 43 million people with federal student loans.

Although smaller in scope than his previous student loan debt relief effort, the latest plan would eliminate accrued interest for 23 million borrowers, fully cancel debt for 4 million, and provide at least $5,000 in debt relief for 10 million (with borrowers possibly falling into two or more of those categories), the Biden administration said in a press release Monday. If the plan is implemented and survives widely anticipated legal challenges from conservative opponents, it will bring the total number of borrowers who have received at least some student loan forgiveness under Biden to 30 million, the White House said. 

Biden said he would continue to cancel student debt despite the setback dealt by the Supreme Court.

“That didn't stop us," Biden said. "It's necessary we continue to find alternatives paths to reduce student debt," Biden said in a speech in Madison, Wisconsin.

The Department of Education created the new attempt at loan forgiveness in a bureaucratic process called negotiated rulemaking, which involved meetings with groups of “stakeholders” including student loan borrowers, e📖ducators, and others last year. 

The new version relies on authority granted to the administration by the Higher Education Act of 1965, different from the legal justification for forgiveness in the Supreme Court case. The previous version had relied on a 2003 law called the HEROES Act.

Whose Debt Will Be Forgiven?

The result of the process was a more c🔜omplicated set of programs that would give different amounts of loan forgiveness to borrowers in ꦜvarious circumstances.

Borrowers Wi꧅th🦋 Debt That Grew Because of Interest

Borrowers whose balance grew on their loans because of unpaid interest after entering repayment♛ will have up to $20,000 forgiven, the White House said. 

Many borrowers on 澳洲幸运5开奖号码历史查询:income-driven repayment plans would fall under that ℱcategory. Under income-driven repayment plans, borrowers pay a percentage of their income rather than a fixed amount and have any remaining balance forgiven after making payments for 20 or 25 years. Because payments can be less than the🌸 amount of interest that builds up, many borrowers end up owing more despite making payments on time, which can be discouraging even for those who are on the path to having their loans eventually forgiven. 

Borrowers enrolled in 澳洲幸运5开奖号码历史查询:the SAVE plan or other 🅘income-driven repayment plans could have the entire amount that their balance has grown since entering repayment canceled, as long as their in🌠comes are less than $120,000 a year for an individual or $240,000 for a married couple. 

Borrowers Who Already Qualify For Forgiveness

Several programs already give borrowers a path to student l𝐆oan forgiveness, including the SAVE income-driven repayment plan, and the Public Service Loan Forgiveness program, which forgives federal loans for people who work for 10 years for a nonprofit, school, or other government a🌠gency. 

Biden’s plan would allow the Department of Education to use data it has to identify borrowers who qualify for forgiveness under those prꦉograms and forgive their loans without waiting for those borrowers to apply. 

“Too many borrowers eligible for reliღef—including immediate cancellation—have not been able to overcome paperwork requirements, bad advice, or other obstacles,” the White House said in a press release.

This♔ measure would result in forgiveness for about 2 million borrowers, the White House estimated.

Borrowers With Debt That Is 20 Years Old or More ꦚ

Debts would be forgiven for borrowers with only undergraduate loans 20 years old or more—those that entered repayment before July 1, 2005. Borrowers with any graduate school debt would get forgiveness if they’ve paid for 25 years or more, in otherꦗ words, if they entered repayment before July 1, 200♍0. That’s about 2.5 million borrowers. 

Borrowers Who Attended Fly-By-Night Schools

Biden would also cancel federal loans for borrowers who got worthꦿless degrees. That includes students who attended programs that later lost their eligibility for federal student aid because of misleading students, schools that closed down, and schools whose graduates don’t earn more on average than people who only graduated from high school.

The administration has already forgiven billions in loans for students who attended specific schools that were shut down or closed, for ex🍨ample, forgiving $5.8 billion for students who attended Corinthian, a chain of for-profit colleges that closed in 2015.

Borrowers in 'Financial Hardship'

In addition to the above, borrowers could automatically be given forgiveness if they’re in financial hardship, deemed “at high risk of defaultin💖g on their student loans,”🀅 according to the White House. Borrowers burdened with “other expenses like medical debt or child care” could apply for relief in the future.

Critics Call the Plan a 'Vote-Buying Scheme'

The latest plan expands Biden’s efforts at student loan forgiveness, which have changed the rules on multiple programs to be more generous to borrowers and discharge student federal loan debt whenever possible. Biden has also created a new repayment plan that 澳洲幸运5开ܫ奖号码历史查询:significan🍰tly reduces required monthly payments for current and future borrowers. 

More than two dozen executive acti💙ons have resulted in $146 billion in student debt relief for 4 million borrowers in various situations, the White House said. 

Conservative critics have criticized Biden’s approach for benefitting certain borrowers who voluntarily took on debt at the expense of taxpayers, many of whom have not gone to college. They also object to Biden’s tactic of using executive actions, bypassing Congress, where Republicans have enough seats to block any attempt at legislation authorizing loan forgiveness.

Mitch Nemeth, a risk management professional in Atlanta, writing for the Mises Institute, a c𝔉onservative think tank, called Biden’s efforts at loan forgiven🐟ess a “vote-buying scheme” in a blog post Sunday.

Advocates Applaud New Plan

Biden said the measure would help the economy🦩 by allowing borrowers to spend their income on other necessitieꦰs of life.

"Freeing millions of Americans from the crushing debt of student debt means they can finally get on with their lives, instead of putting their lives on hold," Biden said.

Advocates for student borrowers praised the latest round of forgiveness.

“Erasing student debt is both a moral obligation and an economic imperative,” said Randi Weingarten, president of the American Federation of Teachers, a national educators union. “It will turbocharge the economy and remove the psychological burden for those who only want to get ahead but instead find themselves ensnared in a never-ending cycle of debt and distress.”