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KEY POINTS The Education Department reports that it has forgiven fewer than 100 people's loans under the program.

Even consumer advocates with low expectations of the program were surprised by the newly released data.

Kevin Maier is one of just 96 people to qualify for public service loan forgiveness

Earlier this month, CNBC tracked down one of the first people to qualify for student debt cancellation under the public service loan forgiveness program, which allows certain not-for-profit and government employees to have their federal student loans scrubbed after 10 years of on-time payments. "I feel pretty lucky," Kevin Maier, a tenured professor at the University of Alaska Southeast, had said. He really should. The Education Department just released data on how many loans it has forgiven under the program. The results are grim.

Just 96 people across the country have been released from their debt, thanks to public service loan forgiveness. Last year was the first year of eligiblity, since the program was signed into law in 2007 and it requires at least 10 years of payments to qualify. Nearly 30,000 borrowers have applied for the forgiveness, according to the Education Department's data. That means less than 1 percent of people who've applied for public service loan forgiveness actually got it. One-quarter of American workers were supposed to be eligible, the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau estimated a few years back. But last year the bureau reported that student loan servicers are delaying or denying borrowers access to the program.