US President Joe Biden said yesterday he was canceling student loans for an additional 55,000 Americans, which would amount to wiping out $4.28 billion in debt in his final month in office.

The mass cancellation of debt is for "teachers, nurses, service members, law enforcement officials, and other public service workers who have dedicated their lives to giving back to their communities," he said in a statement issued by the White House yesterday.

With this new crop of beneficiaries, it would mean "nearly 5 million people" have been approved for debt relief during Biden's administration.

"From Day One of my administration, I promised to make sure that higher education is a ticket to the middle class, not a barrier to opportunity," the president said.

The Democratic president had instated a landmark forgiveness program in 2022 to cancel hundreds of billions in student debt -- which would have made certain borrowers eligible to receive $20,000 in cancellations, while the vast majority were eligible for $10,000.

But the conservative-dominated Supreme Court overruled the program in 2023.