Biden has quietly forgiven billions in student loans despite setbacks for his signature debt plan
WASHINGTON — Sara Diaz was feeling emotional when she checked her email Tuesday. She was among the hundreds of Neiman Marcus employees laid off last month and had just finished a stressful phone call about her health insurance.
As she went through her inbox, she noticed an email from the Department of Education. Diaz had applied to have the government cancel $69,314 in federal student loan debt she took on to attend the Art Institute of Pittsburgh, a for-profit school that closed in 2019.
Two and half years, two education secretaries and one class-action lawsuit later, her application had finally been approved.
"I almost couldn't believe it," she said. "I reread it probably five times."
For decades, a lesser-known program for federal student loan recipients has allowed borrowers to assert a defense to repayment if a school misled them or broke state law. Since the Education Department introduced a formal application in 2015, more than 770,000 people have applied. Nearly half a million applications were still pending at the end of January.
After a modest start at the tail end of the Obama administration, the
