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US President Joe Biden gestures after speaking about student loan debt relief at Madison Area Technical College in Madison, Wisconsin, April 8, 2024.<\/p>\n
Andrew Caballero-Reynolds | AFP | Getty Images<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n
Former President Joe Biden forgave more student debt than any other president<\/a>. However, the country’s education debt<\/a> tab still grew during his presidency.<\/p>\n Outstanding federal student debt stood at roughly $1.64 trillion toward the end of 2024, according to U.S. Department of Education data analyzed by higher education expert Mark Kantrowitz. That compares to around $1.59 trillion at the start of 2021.<\/p>\n “Total student loan debt<\/a> went up while President Biden was in office, despite all of the student loan forgiveness,” Kantrowitz said.<\/p>\n While Biden was in the White House, he canceled student debt for 5.3 million borrowers, for a total of $188.8 billion in relief.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n While these numbers don’t account for inflation, they still show how difficult it is to make a meaningful debt in the country’s student loan balance, experts said.<\/p>\n There were roughly the same number of people with student debt \u2014\u00a042 million \u2014\u00a0both when Biden entered and exited office, according to Kantrowitz’s calculations.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n Betsy Mayotte, president of\u00a0The Institute of Student Loan Advisors<\/a>, a nonprofit that helps borrowers navigate the repayment of their debt, said it didn’t surprise her that the country’s loan balance still climbed.<\/p>\n “We’re going to continue to see that until we solve the root cause of the student loan crisis<\/a>,” Mayotte said. “And the root cause is the cost of higher education<\/a>.”<\/p>\n Before financial aid, the sticker price at some four-year\u00a0colleges and universities<\/a>\u00a0\u2014 after factoring in tuition, fees, room and board, books and other expenses \u2014 is now nearing\u00a0$100,000<\/a>\u00a0per year.<\/p>\n For undergraduate students in the 2024-25 academic year, the estimated expenses for tuition, fees, housing and food at a public four-year in-state college is $24,920, and $58,600 at a private, nonprofit four-year college, according<\/a> to CollegeBoard.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n “New borrowing outpaces repayment,” Kantrowitz said. Indeed, over $300 billion in new federal loans were taken out while Biden was president, Kantrowitz calculated.<\/p>\n Another reason student debt didn’t drop under Biden was the Covid-era pause on federal student loan payments<\/a>, which spanned from March 2020<\/a> to Sept. 2023<\/a>, Mayotte said.<\/p>\nRoot cause of the crisis is ‘the cost of higher education’<\/h2>\n