Florida is a top beneficiary of the Biden-Harris Administration’s Saving on a Valuable Education student loan forgiveness plan, with Florida seeing $105.4 million in debt relief for 12,790 borrowers.
Florida is among the top three states, alongside California and Texas, benefiting significantly from student loan forgiveness initiatives under the Biden-Harris Administration, according to a release issued by the U.S. Department of Education.
Under the administration’s Saving on a Valuable Education (SAVE) Plan, 12,790 borrowers in Florida have been relieved of a total of $105.4 million in student debt. To qualify for forgiveness, recipients needed to have at least ten years of loan payments on record after initially borrowing less than $12,000. California and Texas lead the nation in the number of beneficiaries, with 13,580 Californians receiving $114.8 million and 14,510 Texans benefiting from $116.6 million in debt relief, respectively.
“When we talk about fixing a broken student loan system, this is what we’re talking about,” said U.S. Secretary of Education Miguel Cardona said in a prepared statement.
Despite the high rate of forgiveness, Florida leaders have long opposed the measure, including Attorney General Ashley Moody, who has referred to Biden’s actions as a “major power grab.”
“The President — and his unelected agencies — have no ability, no lawful right, to come in and make these decisions.” she said on Fox News’ Sunday Morning Futures last year. “It was a major power grab. It has always been the law of the nation that these major questions of economic policy are made by Congress.”
Similarly, Gov. Ron DeSantis has spoken out against student loan forgiveness profiles, utilizing his opposition on the matter as a go-to talking point during his failed presidential campaign and during press conferences in his gubernatorial capacity.
“The announcement yesterday that [the Biden administration is going to] require the American taxpayer to be responsible for some of these student loans is very unfair to people who took out loans, worked hard, and paid off their loans,” DeSantis said during a state press conference in August 2022.
On the campaign trail, DeSantis frequently decried loan forgiveness plans, contemptuously deriding those with large loan dues for receiving degrees in “zombie studies,” and vowed to abolish any implementations should he ascend to the White House.
“Why should a truck driver have to pay for somebody that got a degree in zombie studies?” The governor frequently quipped.