Parents who took on student debt for their kids have 'extremely limited' options for loan forgiveness and cheaper monthly payments — but Biden can change that, 9 Democratic lawmakers say

• A group of Democrats urged the Education Department to expand relief for parent PLUS borrowers.
• They cited the SAVE income-driven repayment plan as an additional avenue for relief.

A group of Democratic lawmakers want more relief for parents who chose to take on debt for their kids.

On Thursday, Sen. Chris Van Hollen led eight of his colleagues — including Sens. Elizabeth Warren and Bernie Sanders — in sending a letter to Education Secretary Miguel Cardona regarding parent PLUS borrowers. Parent PLUS loans are a type of loan a parent can take out in their own name to help finance their child's education, and they can borrow up to the full cost of attendance.

However, PLUS loans have the highest interest rate of all federal loans, and they can be particularly burdensome for borrowers who might not have the means to pay it off after their child graduates. The burden increases on parents because, as the lawmakers wrote, options for federal relief on PLUS loans "remain extremely limited."

"We write to you out of deep concern that Parent PLUS borrowers have been left out of key student loan actions the Administration has taken," the Democrats said.

They pointed to the Education Department's new SAVE income-driven repayment plan, established over the summer to give most federal borrowers cheaper payments with a shorter timeline for loan forgiveness. Parent PLUS borrowers are not eligible for the plan, and the Democrats requested that the department consider amending existing regulations to expand eligibility to those borrowers.

Another avenue for relief, the lawmakers wrote, could be through the department's second attempt at loan forgiveness under the Higher Education Act of 1965. The department is holding its fourth negotiation session on February 22 and 23 to discuss a category for relief that would include borrowers experiencing financial hardship, and the Democrats are urging parent PLUS borrowers to be in that category.

"Without addressing the intergenerational debt experienced by families with Parent PLUS loans, the Biden Administration will fall short of its commitments to fix our nation's broken student loan system and to advance affordable access to higher education for all," they wrote.

The Education Department on Thursday released the draft proposal outlining how it would determine which borrowers qualify for relief under hardship, and parent PLUS borrowers were not included.

Some advocates have also previously pushed for the department to expand eligibility for relief programs to PLUS loans. NAACP President Derrick Johnson and National Youth Director Wisdom Cole wrote a letter to Cardona in October asking him to use "existing authority to fully extend all income-driven repayment plans to Parent PLUS borrowers."

However, a senior administration official told reporters last year that the Higher Education Act does not allow parent PLUS loans to be repaid on an income-driven repayment plan, and it was not considering any changes to the law at that time.