NAACP ‘hopeful’ Biden will cancel student loan debt

The National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP) said it’s increasingly optimistic that the Biden administration will move to cancel student loan debt, the same the day the federal government said thousands of borrowers could see their loans forgiven.

“We’re more hopeful than we’ve ever been that President Biden will cancel student loan debt. It appears increasingly likely,” the organization said in a statement on Tuesday. “The shift in tone from the White House is encouraging, but we’ll continue to apply pressure until it happens.”

The NAACP statement came the same day the Department of Education announced that some 40,000 borrowers could see their loans forgiven in an initiative to address continuing issues and failures in federal student loan programs. 

The Public Service Loan Forgiveness (PSLF) program makes full-time public service workers eligible for loan forgiveness. 

“The NAACP has been pushing for student debt cancelation from day one, in the streets, and in the halls of power — including countless meetings with the White House and Secretary of Education — and we’ll continue to lead this fight until it is canceled,” the statement concluded. 

The Biden administration announced earlier this month another extension of the moratorium for federal student loan payments and interest growth, with August 31 being the latest deadline for the moratorium. 

The moratorium, enacted by former President Trump during the COVID-19 pandemic, has been renewed five times since.