Biden admin pushes 'racial equity' in new student debt plan for 'more than 30 million borrowers'

On Monday, President Joe Biden announced plans to use an amended version of the Higher Education Act of 1965 in another effort to cancel student loans, this time with a heavy focus on "racial equity."

In a statement released by the White House, Biden said that last June, the "Department of Education began pursuing an alternative path to debt relief through negotiated rulemaking under the Higher Education Act. Today’s announcement lays out the plans the Biden-Harris Administration is pursuing through that effort."

"In total, these plans would fully eliminate accrued interest for 23 million borrowers, would cancel the full amount of student debt for over 4 million borrowers, and provide more than 10 million borrowers with at least $5,000 in debt relief or more," Biden added. 

The plan is found in an amended version of the Higher Education Act of 1965 that is 922 pages in length. The act has been reauthorized several different times. In a fact sheet released from the White House, the student relief is expected to target "racial equity" goals. It states that the relief is targeting those with "disproportionately high debt burdens" and that "Black and Latino borrowers will get substantial benefits from this relief."

It is set to cancel some debts of "more than 30 million borrowers" in the country. Additionally, the Biden administration said that it has plans to cancel student debt for "borrowers who attended institutions or programs that closed and failed to provide sufficient value— for example that leave graduates with unaffordable loan payments or earnings no better than what someone with a high school diploma earns— would be eligible for relief under this proposal."

Additionally, the administration is planning to cancel student loans of those "borrowers experiencing hardship paying back their loans."