How Biden's student loan relief plan could help Floridians

Many Floridians saddled with student loan debt could see relief after the Biden administration released a plan Wednesday to forgive some of it.

Driving the news: President Biden announced his administration is canceling up to $20,000 in student loan debt for Pell Grant recipients and up to $10,000 for individual borrowers who earn less than $125,000 per year.

• The White House is also extending the pause on repayments by four months.

Why it matters: The decision — which comes days before the Aug. 31 deadline when loan repayments were set to resume after a series of pandemic pauses — is expected to alleviate some of the debt burdens affecting roughly 43 million Americans, Axios' Sophia Cai and Erin Doherty report..

• Approximately 20 million Americans could have their debt completely canceled under the plan.

Zoom in: It's still unclear how many Floridians will see their student loan balances drop.

• Roughly 2.6 million Floridians had a federal student loan as of March, according to government data from the Federal Student Aid Office. They collectively owe more than $102 billion.
• Florida has the fifth-highest federal student debt average in the nation, at $38,459, according to the Education Data Initiative.

What they're saying: "All this means people can start to finally crawl out from under that mountain of debt, to get on top of their rent and utilities, to finally think about buying a home, or starting a family or starting a business," Biden said in a speech Wednesday.