Forgiving $50K in school loans would free 36 million student borrowers from debt: data

More than 36 million people would be freed from debt if the Biden administration cancels $50,000 in student debt per borrower, according to data put out Tuesday from the Education Department.

Sen. Elizabeth Warren (D-Mass.), a vocal proponent of the cancellation proposal being pushed by progressives, released the data after requesting answers from the Education Department earlier this month.

The 36 million borrowers who would have their debt completely forgiven account for the vast majority of the 45 million federal student loan borrowers overall.

The data also shows that 9.8 million federal student loan borrowers who were in default or more than three months behind on their debt at the end of 2019 would have their debt forgiven. That’s almost all of the 10.3 million federal student loan borrowers who were in that position. 

Warren’s release of the data marks the latest salvo in progressives’ push to convince President Biden to take unilateral action to scrap $50,000 in student debt per borrower. 

Biden has set his sights lower, saying he might target $10,000 in debt while still questioning his legal authority to cancel the debt by executive action.

Should the president forgive that amount of loans, 15 million borrowers would completely have their debt forgiven, including 4.6 million people who were in default or delinquent at the end of 2019.

“I do think in this moment of economic pain and strain that we should be eliminating interest on the debts that are accumulated, No. 1. And No. 2, I’m prepared to write off the $10,000 debt,” Biden said in February. 

White House chief of staff Ron Klain said earlier this month that Biden had requested information from Education Secretary Miguel Cardona regarding his legal authority to cancel student loan debt.

“He hasn’t made a decision on that either way. In fact, he hasn’t yet gotten the memos that he needs to start to focus on that decision,” Klain said.