“ For far too long, borrowers fell through the cracks of a broken system that failed to keep accurate track of their progress towards forgiveness.”
I read the article, but must have missed the part about “progress towards loan forgiveness”. Wouldn’t that be when the loan was paid off? I don’t recall getting any early forgiveness for making regular payments on my house or car notes. Neither do I recall way back in the day being offered a break on student loans for making timely payments.
Note the wording. Not 'progress towards repayment', which is the usual method, but 'progress towards forgiveness'.
Also, 'progress' and 'forgiveness' have a religious connotation. Progress towards God and forgiveness of sins. Here, the federal government will 'forgive your sins'. Perhaps that is reading too much into what the POTATUS said but the words he is told to say are generally carefully crafted by his handlers.