Texans will get the biggest share of President Joe Biden’s newest effort in canceling billions of dollars in student debt, a sign that more borrowers in the state have struggled to pay off longstanding loans, Bloomberg News reported. Residents in the Lone Star State that have signed up for a new income-driven repayment program known as SAVE will receive $116.6 million of the $1.2 billion awarded, according to data released by the White House. California, which has 8.5 million more residents than Texas, will see $114.8 million in relief. The forgiveness is the latest incremental effort by the Biden administration to cancel student debt after the Supreme Court blocked its one-time forgiveness plan last June. The nearly $138 billion the administration has canceled so far is less than half of the $400 billion the Congressional Budget Office said would be wiped out under the broad-based plan, and has primarily impacted a narrow group of borrowers who meet certain qualifications. The Biden administration announced on Feb. 21 that some 150,000 borrowers will receive a cumulative $1.2 billion in student-debt forgiveness under the income-driven repayment program known as SAVE. Borrowers enrolled in the plan who initially took out $12,000 or less in federal loans and have made at least 10 years’ worth of payments qualify for their remaining balance to be forgiven.
