261,000 more student-loan borrowers get $4.5 billion in debt cancellation in Biden's final days in office
Anna Moneymaker/Getty Images
- Biden announced an additional $4.5 billion in student-debt cancellation for 261,000 borrowers.
- The relief impacts borrowers who attended Ashford University, which a court found engaged in fraudulent behavior.
- This is among Biden's last debt relief efforts before he leaves the White House.
More student-loan borrowers are getting debt relief during President Joe Biden's last week in the White House.
On Wednesday, Biden's Education Department announced that it approved an additional $4.5 billion in debt cancellation for 261,000 borrowers who attended the for-profit school Ashford University from March 1, 2009, to April 30, 2020.
This announcement is a result of a request for relief from the California Department of Justice, which investigated Ashford and found, along with evidence from the Education Department, that the school misled students about the costs of attending and the credentials they needed to pursue their desired careers.
The California Department of Justice hit Ashford with a $20 million penalty in 2022, and a federal court found the school guilty of fraudulent behavior that same year. Ashford appealed the ruling, and in 2024, an appeals court upheld the department's findings of wrongdoing.
"Numerous federal and state investigations have documented the deceptive recruiting tactics frequently used by Ashford University," Under Secretary of Education James Kvaal said in a statement. He added that "today's announcement will finally provide relief to many students who were harmed by Ashford's illegal actions."
The Education Department said it will email impacted borrowers notifying them of their relief in the coming days, and borrowers do not need to take any further action. Since this relief is a group discharge, it also includes borrowers who did not individually submit borrower defense to repayment applications, which are forms borrowers can submit for relief if they believe they were defrauded by the school they attended.
This relief expands on the Education Department's 2023 approval of a $72 million group discharge for 2,300 borrowers who attended Ashford, following the court decision from 2022. Ashford was acquired by the University of Arizona Global Campus in 2020.
This could likely mark Biden's last batch of student-loan forgiveness before he leaves office. On January 13, the Education Department announced $4.2 billion in debt cancellation for 152,000 borrowers, bringing the total student-debt relief under Biden to over $180 billion for 5.3 million borrowers.
The landscape for student-loan forgiveness is uncertain under President-elect Donald Trump, who has previously criticized broad debt relief and is unlikely to continue Biden's debt relief efforts.