CORPUS CHRISTI, Texas — The Biden administration recently upgraded their student loan forgiveness program to provide more relief.
The upgrade involves forgiving up to $12,000 per student.
3NEWS spoke to students at Del Mar College about their reaction to the news that some of their student loans are being forgiven under President Biden's Saving on A Valuable Education plan.
"I was at A&M but I transferred over here because it was a lot of money, I couldn't afford it at all," sophomore Karina Hernandez said.
"I think it's really great," freshman Gabrella Ramirez said. "I hope I can qualify for it or get some of that debt forgiven because I'm only 18 and I already have like way, so much money into college already. This is just the beginning."
"I think that's a great idea for a lot of people, because my sister is going, she graduated a long time ago but she's going through that student debt and she's paying it off slowly but it's taken a lot on her," freshman Erica Alejos said.
Gracie Martinez, the dean of Outreach and Enrollment Services at Del Mar has been paying off close to $50,000 in student debt for more than 30 years and no longer has to pay more than $500 a month on her loans.
"One day I got a letter saying your loan has been forgiven," Martinez said. "And I'm like, 'Oh my God! I don't have to pay another $580 and my husband says because that was my car payment.'"
The Biden administration says nearly 153,000 borrowers are receiving $1.2 billion in forgiveness.
In Texas, that amounts to more than 14,500 students who are being forgiven $116.6 million. At Del Mar alone, it's a lot of students.
Joseph Ruiz is the director of Financial Aid services and he said the first part of the SAVE program was to cut payments in half but the most recent update is forgiving amounts up to $12,000 per student.
"I would say maybe, 500 to 600 students possibly, yeah, that's huge," Ruiz said. "So one great thing the government did, federal government is they put everyone in it automatically."
Check with your student loan provider to find out if you have forgiven debt.
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