Things To Do In SW Florida

By Eliza Haverstock | NerdWallet

More than 150,000 borrowers who signed up for the newest student loan repayment plan — Saving on a Valuable Education (SAVE) — just found out President Joe Biden will forgive their remaining debt. If you weren’t one of the lucky borrowers, it’s not too late to join their ranks.

“This is the first announcement, hopefully, in a slew of announcements,” says Amy Czulada, outreach and advocacy manager of the Student Borrower Protection Center, a nonprofit student loan borrower advocacy organization, of the forgiveness email affected borrowers received.

The Education Department has not shared a timeline for future SAVE forgiveness announcements but said it will discharge eligible loans on a “rolling basis” going forward.

You must enroll in SAVE and meet two key criteria to qualify for debt forgiveness now:

• Borrowed $12,000 or less in federal student loans.
• Spent at least 10 years in repayment, including the pandemic pause and other time counted under the IDR account adjustment.

If you meet these requirements, Czulada says, “Please enroll — this could really change your life in a matter of minutes.” Private student loans are not eligible for the SAVE program or federal student loan forgiveness. read more

TALLAHASSEE — A plan is in the works to revise the social media ban for children under 16 pushed by House Speaker Paul Renner, R-Palm Coast, if he can come up with language that addresses the concerns of Gov. Ron DeSantis and avoid a political showdown.

“The speaker and governor are working together on language … to fix the concerns that the governor has with HB1,” Senate President Kathleen Passidomo, R-Naples, said Thursday. “My understanding is that they are in a really good spot.”

As described by Passidomo, the way forward would be for DeSantis to veto the bill and then add the agreed-upon language to a bill with similar subject matter, HB 3, which was already unanimously approved by the full House and sent to the Senate.

“I feel confident that something is going to happen like that,” Passidomo said.

The deadline for DeSantis to veto or sign the original bill is Friday.

HB 3 will be put on the Senate floor for a vote Monday, Passidomo said.

Just last week, the same day both chambers approved HB1, DeSantis said he was still concerned it wasn’t ready and needed work to pass constitutional muster and protect parental rights. read more