Biden Has Canceled $138 Billion in Student Loans. Some Say It’s Not Enough.

Before President Biden took office, Catherine McDermott-Coffin, 76, was resigned to spending the rest of her life repaying $148,966 in federal student loans. The clinical psychologist had worked with incarcerated women at a state prison for more than a decade while paying down her graduate school loans — work that should have qualified her for a popular loan forgiveness program for public servants. But like so many other borrowers, McDermott-Coffin later learned she was in the wrong repayment plan for the debt program, derailing her chance of relief. But everything changed in 2021.