Ed Department: Mass Loan Cancellation Is Off the Table
Katherine Knott
October 11, 2023
The first meeting of the Education Department’s student debt relief negotiating committee offered glimpses at what kind of loan forgiveness the Biden administration might propose.
Ever since President Biden said that his administration would try again to offer broad student debt relief after the Supreme Court struck down his first plan, experts and advocates have wondered what shape that relief would take.
On Tuesday, the department offered its clearest answer yet—at least about what it is not planning to do.
“We’re not looking at a broad-based debt cancellation where we are going to wipe off debt in its entirety,” said Tamy Abernathy, director of the policy coordination group at the Education Department’s Office of Postsecondary Education. “That doesn’t mean that, in some cases, there wouldn’t be cancellation.”
