Education Secretary Cardona meets with teachers and borrowers as he touts new student debt relief plan

Education Secretary Miguel Cardona met Monday with about half a dozen teachers and borrowers in New York City to mark the announcement of a newly proposed federal student debt relief plan that could benefit more than 30 million people.

This is the first direct attempt at bringing back a revised version of President Joe Biden’s student debt forgiveness program, which the Supreme Court struck down last year, crushing the hopes of more than 40 million eligible borrowers who could have had up to $20,000 in debt canceled.

"We want to provide as much debt relief to as many people as possible as quickly as possible," Cardona said in an interview Monday at the headquarters of the United Federation of Teachers union following his meeting with teachers.

"So, we're being very thoughtful about this," said Cardona, one of Biden's four Latino Cabinet members.

Cardona said his office and the Biden administration came together to work out the details of the newly proposed student debt relief plan taking into account the arguments from the Supreme Court justices who struck down their previous debt forgiveness program.

At the time, the court argued that Biden lacked power under the 2003 Higher Education Relief Opportunities for Students Act, HEROES Act in short, to enforce a program that would have cost more than $400 billion without congressional approval.

The new plan would cancel runaway interest for millions of borrowers, including that of more than 23 million low-income or middle-income borrowers. It would also nullify debt for those who are eligible but are not yet participating in current forgiveness programs, including those in public service who’ve been paying off their loans for 10 years or more, as well as for borrowers who