Editor’s note: The original November 2021 version of this article was lost. The Lee Daily Register rebuilt it in October 2026 from U.S. Department of Education documents and the reporting cited below, and added what happened afterward.
About 30,000 public service workers are on track to have roughly $2 billion in federal student loans canceled under a temporary change to the Public Service Loan Forgiveness program, an Education Department spokesperson said. More than 10,000 of them have already seen about $715 million discharged, with the rest expected in the coming weeks, KTVU reported.
Education Secretary Miguel Cardona wrote on Twitter that more borrowers, including veterans and service members, would receive emails about PSLF cancellation over the coming weeks, Al Día News reported.
A program that rarely paid out
Congress created PSLF in 2007 to cancel the remaining federal student debt of teachers, nurses, firefighters and other public servants after 10 years of qualifying payments. In practice, strict rules on loan types, repayment plans and payment timing disqualified many applicants. Before the October changes, just over 16,000 borrowers had ever received forgiveness, the department said in its Oct. 6 fact sheet.
Some borrowers lost credit because a payment was a penny or two short or a few days late, the department acknowledged. About 60% of borrowers who had certified employment for PSLF have or had loans from the older Federal Family Education Loan program, which did not qualify.
What the waiver changes
Under the limited waiver, the department will count past payments made while working for a qualifying employer, whatever the loan type or repayment plan. The main points from the fact sheet:
- The waiver runs through Oct. 31, 2022. Borrowers with FFEL or Perkins loans must consolidate into the Direct Loan program and submit a PSLF form by then.
- About 22,000 borrowers were expected to qualify right away for $1.74 billion in forgiveness, with no action needed. Another 27,000 could qualify for $2.82 billion by certifying more employment.
- More than 550,000 borrowers who had consolidated their loans were expected to gain an average of 23 qualifying payments.
- Months on active military duty will count, even if loans were in deferment or forbearance.
- The department will review denied PSLF applications for errors.
Federal student loan payments, paused during the pandemic, were scheduled to resume in February 2022, according to KTVU.
What happened next
The waiver closed on Oct. 31, 2022, as planned. By Sept. 30, 2023, more than 673,000 borrowers had received forgiveness through it, worth $46.6 billion, the department reported in its fiscal 2023 financial report. Counting earlier PSLF approvals and a separate temporary expansion, forgiveness had passed $52.1 billion for 730,000 borrowers.
Under the Trump administration, the department announced a final rule on Oct. 30, 2025, letting it disqualify employers it finds have a “substantial illegal purpose.” The rule takes effect July 1, 2026, and the department’s fact sheet criticized the pandemic-era waivers as fiscally irresponsible.
