The U.S. Department of Education will forgive $39 billion in student debt by updating a technical requirement under a long-existing program.
The change, announced Friday, will help more than 804,000 borrowers. It comes as the Biden administration pursues alternatives to a $400 billion student loan forgiveness plan that the Supreme Court struck down in June.
The new plan counts more payments toward a forgiveness program that kicks in when struggling borrowers have made the equivalent of either 20 or 25 years worth of payments.
