U.S. Student Loan Forgiveness Set For 800,000 Borrowers

A federal judge on Monday dismissed a lawsuit from two conservative groups seeking to block student loan forgiveness for more than 800,000 borrowers, Nirvi Shah and Alia Wong reported for USA TODAY.

Photo Insert: The US Education Department said last month that after adjusting how it calculates student loan payments in a move to correct past errors, about 804,000 people would have the balance of their loans erased over the next few months.

The debt in question, about $39 billion, is what borrowers still owe after making 20 to 25 years' worth of payments.

The suit from the Cato Institute and Mackinac Center – filed on their behalf by the New Civil Liberties Alliance (NCLA) in federal court in Michigan – argued the federal government lacks the authority to forgive the debt and was working on an accelerated schedule "to evade judicial review."

The US Education Department said last month that after adjusting how it calculates student loan payments in a move to correct past errors, about 804,000 people would have the balance of their loans erased over the next few months.

Judge Thomas L. Ludington, an appointee of President George W. Bush, dismissed the groups' case and rejected a request that the forgiveness be temporarily blocked. Ludington said the conservative groups did not show that they would be harmed by the plan.

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