Chaka Felder-McEntire thought she would never get rid of her student loans.

"I have a bachelor's, master's, my Connecticut administrative certification and my doctorate," she said. "I had $211,000 in student loan debt and I was A-OK dying with that debt."

That's ironic, perhaps, considering that Felder-McEntire is founder of Higher Heights Youth Empowerment Programs, which, in her words, "supports families and students towards achieving their post secondary goals."

When the first round of student loan forgiveness was announced, during the COVID pandemic, Felder-McEntire saw about half of that $211,000 wiped away. But $100,000 is still a pretty big pill to swallow.

"I was happy about it. But again, I'm still six figures in," she said. Felder-McEntire is in the education field, not known for its high salaries. "Even if I do reach six figures, my expenses are towards my home, toward my children. When am I ever going to be able to afford another mortgage payment for student loan payments?"

"That's what it boils down to: Your student loan payment becomes an additional mortgage," she said.

Then, last month, President Joe Biden forgave more loans, debt held by 30 million Americans, including about 4 million whose debt would disappear entirely.

That's exactly what happened to Felder-McEntire.

"I myself had all this debt, sitting there, just waiting for a miracle to happen," she said. And a couple of days ago, I logged in and all of my loans were forgiven."

"I thought it was a joke until I got an alert for my credit report that my student loan debt was definitely at zero. So then I knew it was real," she said.

This week, Biden announced that yet more loans will be forgiven, 13,440 borrowers in Connecticut alone, who owe a combined $471.3 million. That's in addition to the 11,070 Connecticut borrowers who had $763.2 million in loans forgiven between October, 2021 and May 16, 2024.

In total, Biden's announcement this week wipes $7.7 billion worth of student loan debt held by 160,500 borrowers. With the previous announcements, that means one out of every 10 student loan borrowers has received some sort of debt relief.

"The Biden-Harris Administration remains persistent about our efforts to bring student debt relief to millions more across the country, and this announcement proves it," said U.S. Secretary of Education Miguel Cardona said in a news release. "One out of every 10 federal student loan borrowers approved for debt relief means one out of every 10 borrowers now has financial breathing room and a burden lifted."

Anne Watkins, founder of New Haven-based nonprofit Student Loan Fund, said her organization is "delighted any time borrowers get the cancellation they deserve," but that there is more to be done.

"While we are thrilled for the 160,000 borrowers impacted by these changes, we know Connecticut alone has more than 500,000 student loan borrowers," she said. "These incremental steps complicate what could have been a universal fix."

Felder-McEntire said a blanket forgiveness would be nice, but considering the "external factors, so many people who are against it," that does not seem to be possible in the short term.

"You can't do a huge wave," she said. "You have to give it out piecemeal. And I'm just happy that I was a part of the other wave, because I was sitting here every day, just like, 'When is my turn? When am I going to receive the golden egg?'"

Student loan debt, Felder-McEntire said, is "a heavy, heavy burden." To have it lifted is freeing.

"What it means is that I'm no longer going to feel this heavy burden that I've always felt," she said. "It's an investment that you make in yourself and you're just like, 'You know what? I made the investment and some way, somehow it'll work itself out.' But the burden is just lifted."