Jul 3, 2023 - Education

486K Washingtonians who sought student loan forgiveness won't get it

Data: Federal Student Aid; Chart: Simran Parwani/Axios

Friday's Supreme Court ruling striking down President Biden's student debt relief plan means hundreds of thousands of Washingtonians won't get loan forgiveness.

By the numbers: In the short time that the application for student loan relief was available last year, more than 308,000 Washington residents were approved to get as much as $20,000 wiped off their loan balance, the White House said in January.

  • All told, about 486,000 people in Washington applied or had already submitted enough information to be considered eligible for the program, before legal proceedings blocked it from taking effect in the fall.

Plus: As of March, a total of 805,000 Washington residents had federal student loan debt, owing a collective $29 billion, according to the U.S. Department of Education.

  • Per borrower, the average amount owed in Washington was just over $36,000, the Education Department said.

Go deeper: Who owes the most in student loans

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