Over 12,000 Virgin Islands Students Qualify for Student Loan Relief, Says Gov

Governor Albert Bryan Jr. announced on Wednesday Sept. 21st that over 12,000 students will qualify for debt relief under President Biden’s student loan forgiveness plan.

The estimate provided by the governor includes 7,800 federal student loan borrowers and 4,700 Pell grant borrowers from within the Virgin Islands. According to the student loan forgiveness plan announced by President Biden last month, Pell grant borrowers can earn up to $20,000 in debt relief whereas other borrowers of federal loans can earn up to $10,000.

“This is very welcomed news for the former students who never had the opportunity to take advantage of the free tuition law that Lt. Governor Tregenza Roach authored in the Senate or the scholarship funds the Bryan-Roach Administration has been giving to help those aspiring to a college degree afford the high costs associated with it,” Gov. Bryan said.

According to estimates from the White House, the student loan forgiveness program will affect over 40 million nationwide with half of that population having the entire remainder of their loan discharged. The total cumulative student loan debt nationwide stands at $1.6 billion according to the White House.

Since 1980, the cost of college tuition on average has tripled with the average student exiting college with a debt of $25,000. Despite the rise in tuition the contribution of PELL Grants steadily flatlined during that time.

During the same year that a rag-tag bunch of college kids defeated the Soviets in Lake Placid in a historic hockey game dubbed the “Miracle on Ice,” PELL grants covered about 80% of the average tuition cost. Today it covers about a third. Yet as President Biden noted in his Fact Sheet on the Student Loan Forgiveness Plan:

“Post-high school education should be a ticket to a middle-class life,” said the White House, “but for too many, the cost of borrowing for college is a lifelong burden that deprives them of that opportunity.”