April O'Neil / news@WHMI.com

Student loan borrowers experiencing hardship may soon have additional relief.

The Biden-Harris Administration announced additional rulemaking sessions on Thursday, Feb. 22nd, and Friday, Feb. 23rd aimed at the issue of providing relief to borrowers experiencing hardship across the country.

Discussions will include methods of providing relief to those experiencing issues with loan servicers, providing aid to those with a disability, and assisting students who attended an educational institution that closed.

This week’s session is hosted by the U.S. Department of Education.

At the end of Q4 2023, the Federal Reserve reported that U.S. borrowers owed over 1.77 trillion dollars in student loan debt.

The Biden-Harris Administration has approved more than 136.6 billion in targeted relief to those with student loans, including the largest increase to Pell Grants in the last decade.
In 2023, the U.S. Supreme Court struck down the Administration’s $400 billion student loan relief plan.

Critics of the student debt forgiveness plan argued the President's initiative as a "slap in the face” to those who already paid their student debt without assistance, including Michigan Representative Lisa McClain, who advocated on the house floor. “Apparently, he (President Biden) has no respect of hard-working taxpayers. Education isn’t free- someone pays for it.”

About 14% of Michigan residents carry some kind of student loan debt. As of 2022, 52.0% of them were reported to be under the age of 35 according to the Education Data Initiative, an independent research group studying higher education in the United States.

A link to the Education Data Initiative is provided below.