The Biden administration is canceling another $7.4 billion in student loans for 277,000 borrowers, amounting to $153 billion in total debt forgiveness approved by the president.

The Education Department announced Friday that it had approved the extra loan cancellations for almost 4.3 million student borrowers nationwide through its Saving on a Valuable Education (SAVE) plan.

“Today’s announcement shows — once again — that the Biden-Harris Administration is not letting up its efforts to give hardworking Americans some breathing room,” Education Secretary Miguel Cardona said in a statement.

“As long as there are people with overwhelming student loan debt competing with basic needs such as food and healthcare, we will remain relentless in our pursuit to bring relief to millions across the country.”

But critics of the move have often pointed out the financial burden is only being shifted to the majority of US taxpayers who do not have some sort of college degree.

“The administration is tone deaf. There’s no other way to put it,” said House Education and Workforce Committee chairwoman Virginia Foxx, who criticized the Education Department for botching its federal student aid programs while prioritizing the debt cancellation “scheme.”

“That has been frustrating, especially since it has jeopardized the academic journey of millions of students,” Foxx (R-NC) said. “But what is absolutely maddening is that the administration is STILL not doing its job and instead focusing on its student loan shenanigans.”

Under the Biden administration’s various student loan cancellation programs, at least 10% of borrowers have “now been approved for some debt relief,” according to the Education Department, making good on a 2020 campaign promise from the president.

The payoff

Ever since the Supreme Court quashed President Biden’s huge debt cancellation program, he has mounted an end run…

August 2022: President Biden proposes a $430B cancellation of student loans for 43 million borrowers.

June 2023: The Supreme Court strikes down Biden’s plan, but he nonetheless puts forward his Saving on a Valuable Education (SAVE) plan for student debt cancellation, which is estimated to cost $475B over the next decade.

August 2023: Biden cancels $39B in student loan debt for more than 800,000 borrowers who have been paying back their loans for 20-25 years

October 2023: Biden forgives $9B for 125,000 borrowers who were already eligible for loan forgiveness under existing programs.

January 2024: Biden cancels $5B in student loan debt for 74,000 people using existing government programs.

February 2024: Biden waves away $1.2B in student loans for 153,000 people through the SAVE plan, including those who borrowed $12,000 or less who have been repaying the money for at least 10 years.

March 2024: Biden cancels $5.8B in student loans for 78,000 borrowers via the Public Service Loan Forgiveness (PSLF) program, including teachers, nurses and firefighters.

April 2024: Biden forgives up to $20,000 in accrued interest for more than 25 million student debtors.

April 2024 (cont.): Biden cancels another $7.4B in student loans for 277,000 borrowers, including SAVE and PSLF participants as well as adjustments to other income-driven repayment plans.

“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,” President Biden said in a statement. “I will never stop working to cancel student debt — no matter how many times Republican elected officials try to stop us.”

Biden, 81, began the income-driven repayment plan after the Supreme Court struck down his $430 billion student debt cancellation gambit for more than 40 million borrowers in June 2023 — but the SAVE plan is expected to cost US taxpayers even more.

According to a Penn Wharton Budget Model estimate, SAVE costs will soar to $475 billion over the next 10 years.

The Republican attorneys general of Kansas and Missouri are already challenging the plan with federal lawsuits that are backed by their opposite numbers in Alabama, Alaska, Idaho, Iowa, Louisiana, Montana, Nebraska, South Carolina, Texas and Utah.

“Last time Defendants tried this the Supreme Court said that this action was illegal,” the lawsuit states. “Nothing since then has changed, other than introducing more legal errors into this Rule’s underlying analysis.”

A recent court filing by Kansas AG Kris Kobach added that it was “unrealistic to think that any loan forgiveness that occurs during this litigation will ever be clawed back.”

The SAVE plan is already serving at least 8 million student borrowers, allowing many to make lower payments and some to make no payments on their debt until their income rises above a certain threshold.

Under the plan, borrowers who originally borrowed $12,000 or less are eligible for forgiveness after 10 years. Those who took out more than $12,000 can get cancellation but on a longer timeline. For each $1,000 borrowed beyond $12,000, it adds an additional year of payments on top of 10 years.

On Friday the administration also said it’s canceling loans for 65,000 borrowers who are enrolled in older income-driven repayment plans and hit the finish line for forgiveness. It also announced cancellation for another 5,000 borrowers through the Public Service Loan Forgiveness program.

That’s on top of a pledge Biden and Vice President Kamala Harris made to voters in the swing states of Wisconsin and Pennsylvania earlier this week to cancel up to $20,000 in accrued interest for more than 25 million debtors who went to college.

With Post wires