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SAN DIEGO — The deadline to start paying back your student loan is fast approaching, but some public servants are seeing their loans disappear. 

One San Diego Mesa College professor says the remainder of her student loan has been forgiven, thanks to some changes made to the Public Service Loan Forgiveness program. Some teachers, firefighters, nurses and other public servants are seeing their debt wiped clean.

“I saw it read zero balance just this past week. I didn’t think it was ever going to happen. I truly didn’t think,” Professor Janna Braun said. 

Braun was one of the thousands of borrowers who saw student loan debt forgiven as part of the Biden administration’s overhaul of the Public Service Loan Forgiveness program.

“I have been paying off the same loan since I graduated in 2004,” Braun said.

Her financial burden was wiped clean, but it’s a burden still felt by nearly 44 million Americans.

“The price of higher education has just surged in the recent past, and because of that, students are in more and more debt, and because of that, that has adversely affected their lives,” Univerity of San Diego economics professor Alan Gin said.

Student Jessica Ordanez says she worries about how she will be able to pay for college.

“I’m going to have to be able to take out a loan and then pay for it in the future, and who knows it could be thousands of dollars and that’s scary,” Ordanez said.

The pause on student loan debt payments is set to expire at the end of August. The Biden administration reportedly is considering forgiving $10,000 in debt while others are urging the administration to forgive $50,000 as Americans struggle with skyrocketing inflation. 

“I think it would be a boost to the economy,” Gin said. “The only potential downside is that some people would argue that well other people have gone through and paid back their debt and they didn’t get any debt forgiveness, but, again, it’s a different time.

The Biden administration is widely expected to announce whether the president will extend the pause on student loan payments by the end of August.