A Third Of Maine Student Loan Borrowers Could Have Their Debt Eliminated Under Plan Floated By Biden

A significant number of Mainers with outstanding student loans could see some major relief under a proposal that newly inaugurated President Joe Biden will reportedly make to cancel thousands in federal student loan debt for each person, among other efforts.

In addition to planning an executive order to “pause” federal student loan collection through September, Biden will also potentially call on Congress to cancel $10,000 in federal loan debt for every borrower, according to some reports.

That could come as a relief for many borrowers in Maine, who carry some of the highest college loan debts in the country. Two-thirds of Maine’s college graduates leave school with loan debt, with an average total close to $34,000.

Now, Biden’s reported proposal could clear all the student loan debt for one-in-three Maine borrowers — a rate that’s similar to the whole country’s —and reduce it by at least half for another 21 percent of them, according to research from Associate Professor Nicholas Hillman and his team at the University of Wisconsin-Madison.

Read the rest of the story at Maine Public’s website.