Student debt blossomed under Biden despite loan forgiveness

By the end of 2024, outstanding federal student debt reached about $1.64 trillion, according to data cited by CNBC. This marked an increase from $1.59 trillion when Biden took office in 2021.

“Total student loan debt went up while President Biden was in office, despite all of the student loan forgiveness,” said higher education expert Mark Kantrowitz.

During Biden's presidency, he canceled $188.8 billion in student loans for 5.3 million people and could have been higher if the Supreme Court did not intervene on some of the efforts. The number of people with student debt remained steady at 42 million from when Biden began his presidency to when he left, according to Kantrowitz’s analysis.

Betsy Mayotte, president of The Institute of Student Loan Advisors, was not surprised that student debt still rose during Biden’s presidency and emphasized that the growth in loan balances was expected. “We’re going to continue to see that until we solve the root cause of the student loan crisis. And the root cause is the cost of higher education.”

Expenses for some colleges are nearing $100,000 according to the outlet, and during the 2024-2025 academic year, students at public in-state colleges face an average cost of $24,920, while private colleges cost about $58,600.

“New borrowing outpaces repayment,” Kantrowitz noted, saying that more than $300 billion in federal loans were taken out during Biden's presidency. One other reason that debts may have increased so much is that Biden put a pause on federal student loan payments from March 2020 to September 2023 because of Covid-19.