PHOENIX — ABC15 is following up on Second Gentleman Doug Emhoff's recent visit to Arizona where he highlighted new plans from the Biden Administration to reduce student loan debt.
For this story, we are answering one of our viewer's emails, listening to her concerns, and getting answers.
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ABC15 viewer Teresa wrote:
"When you interviewed the Second Gentleman, did he say anything about the Parent Plus Loan program? I was hoping those loans can be forgiven also."
Before we answer this question, let's dive deeper and explain what exactly the Parent Plus Loan Program is.
According to loan giant Sallie Mae, Parent Plus Loans are also known as "Direct Plus Loans." They are loans from the federal government that let parents pay for their kids' college or trade school tuition. Sallie Mae also says grandparents or legal guardians are typically not allowed to take out these kinds of loans.
On April 8, Emhoff led a roundtable of education leaders and experts to highlight the White House's plans to lower student debt, but did not directly address the Parent Plus Loan Program, so we followed up with White House officials to get answers.
Here's the response we got from the White House:
"Parent PLUS loans would generally be eligible for waivers related to accrued or capitalized interest, entering repayment 20 or more years ago, and borrowing for a student’s enrollment in a low-financial-value program or institution. They would also be eligible for forgiveness on some but not all targeted forgiveness opportunities where a borrower is otherwise eligible for forgiveness but has not successfully applied, such as for closed school loan discharges."
As soon as we got that response from the White House, we checked back in with ABC15 viewer Teresa who responded by saying: "Thank you so much - it helps a lot."
We want you to know that we are listening to your concerns, and we're happy to follow up on any story we've done.
If you have a concern or question you want us to work to get an answer to, send an email to share@abc15.com.
