News 12's Elizabeth Hashagen was joined by Dr. Dawn Medley and Nichole Davis to discuss education and student loans.

The Biden administration is scaling back its federal student loan cancellation program to try and protect against legal challenges. That includes two suits filed last week.

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Now there's new guidelines - that exclude at least hundreds of thousands of borrowers - who were initially told they qualified.

On Thursday, the Department of Education updated its instructions on who qualifies for the debt forgiveness program of up to $20,000 for some Americans.

The new guidance excludes people who took out federal loans that, while they were guaranteed by the government, were technically handled by private banks.

Now those borrowers -- with Perkins Loans and Federal Family Education Loans (FFEL) -- can no longer qualify for the forgiveness program.

They will only qualify for forgiveness if they applied for consolidation before Sept. 29.