The deadline for student loan forbearance was extended until the end of January 2021, Education Sec. Betsy DeVos announced Friday.
More than 40 million student loan borrowers in the US were not expected to make payments on their federal student loans as part of the CARES Act package passed by Congress earlier this year as the pandemic posed financial insecurity for many Americans.
The Trump administration on Friday suspended all federal student loan payments through the end of January and kept interest rates at 0%, extending a moratorium that started early in the pandemic but was set to expire at the end of this month.
By extending payments by one month, the administration is effectively leaving it to the Biden administration or Congress to decide whether to provide longer-term relief to millions of student borrowers. The measure was included in a March relief package and the White House extended it in August, but its fate was in doubt amid stalemate over a new
Education Secretary Betsy DeVos calls free public college proposals “socialist takeover of higher education”
(AP Photo/Jacquelyn Martin)
Progressives Sen. Bernie Sanders and Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez have lashed out at Secretary of Education Betsy DeVos after she criticised calls for higher education to be made a public good.
On Tuesday, Ms DeVos called progressive proposals for higher education to be freely available and proposals from the Biden administration to forgive student debt “a socialist takeover of higher education.”
She made the comments during a Federal Student Aid offices virtual conference.
“We’ve heard shrill calls to cancel, to forgive, to make it
Gavin Williamson has suggested the government is “looking” at prioritising teachers and support staff in the rollout of the newly-approved Covid-19 vaccine in order to minimise widespread disruption in schools.
The education secretary’s comments came after the Joint Community on Vaccination and Immunisation (JCVI) published details of which individuals should be offered the Pfizer/BioNTech jab as a priority.
In the first phase of the mammoth task of rolling out the vaccine, the body listed nine priority groups, with residents in care home and carers at the top of the list, followed by all those over 80-years-old
Massachusetts senator Elizabeth Warren called US education secretary Betsy DeVos an “unqualified billionaire” after she criticised proposals for student loan forgiveness.
Ms Devos criticised proposals similar to ones included in President-elect Joe Biden’s economic recovery plan, which would forgive $10,000 (£7,516) individually for people who have borrowed student loans, according to Newsweek.
Speaking at an Education Department financial aid conference on Tuesday, Ms DeVos said: “We’ve heard shrill calls to cancel, to forgive, to