Public Service Loan Forgiveness

Public Service Loan Forgiveness. A program that every public school teacher should apply for and have their student loans forgiven, especially educators who work at a Title 1 schools (80% of the school’s student population derives from low-income families). The Biden Administration began a program to make this a reality for many educators and student loan borrowers. Our current administration revoked it and released a new executive order regarding loan forgiveness (see below for the executive order).

The first paragraph of the first section states the purpose of the Public Loan Forgiveness program: encouraging Americans who graduate from college to seek employment in a public service (educator, public defender, etc). I agree. We should grant loan forgiveness to Americans who attend college and accrues debt as student loan, to serve the public. These are people who want to build a better community by giving themselves. Most educators who continue to spend their own wages to support their students in the classroom for supplies, incentives, and more need a compensation for their services. Forgiving their loan displays how the country values them.

In the second paragraph of the first section, the executive order criticizes Biden for his use of the HEROES act to forgive roughly $430 Billion in student loans because the country began pulling out of the pandemic in 2022. Millions of Americans lost income because of stay-at-home state orders, making many student loans fall into deferment. Biden offered the opportunity to provide financial relief to these American and Republicans disagreed. Eventually, the Supreme court ruled the loan forgiveness unconstitutional, forcing millions of Americans to continue carrying the burden of student loans. Republican rationale stated, Americans who chose to accrue loans for educational advancements should not be given a handout (NPR). However, corporations should?

During the 2008-09 financial crisis, Congress offered approximately $500 billion to corporations who suffered financially. Many of these corporations are “for profit,” and already receive hefty tax cuts because their tax bracket differs from average American citizens. My understanding is: it is okay to use taxpayers’s money to “bail-out” corporations, but not to “support” the people who are paying more in taxes. If the American people are paying more in taxes, the government should use that money to support the people. Until corporations pay higher taxes, our government should refrain from offering them bail outs.

Unfortunately, the second section of the order turns into an authoritarian statement. Americans seeking loan forgiveness must not work for an agency promoting assistance to immigrants who violate federal laws (considering the current administration’s stance on immigration, I’ll leave that to your own interpretation). It also prohibits Americans supporting trans-children from applying. Should the federal government learn your services support any trans-child in anyway, your risk your loan becoming inelgible for forgiveness.

I have worked at a Title 1 school for two decades and have applied for loan forgiveness twice. The first time I applied was under Trump’s first term. Because I have two separate loans, the Federal DOE rejected my application. The second time I applied was under the Biden administration. I qualified for forgiveness, but the Supreme Court overturned Biden’s Loan Forgiveness, leaving me to continue carrying this financial weight. I considered applying for the loan repayment program the Biden Administration created. However, upon reading the fine print, not only would it lower my month payments but also I would have to wait another ten years for my loans to be forgiven. Ultimately, I chose not to have my loans forgiven and pay them back myself. I am fortunate to have a manageable amount remaining. However, many Americans struggle to pay back their loans. They should have their loans forgiven for providing a public service to our country, regardless of what career path they chose.

If you are a student loan borrower and decide to apply, remember to take caution in your application. Any educator applying may meet some obstacles depending on your classroom ethics. It is uncertain how this administration is going to confirm your pedagogy aligns with their guidelines of restricting diversity, equity, and inclusion, but I still encourage you to try. You may end up having it all forgiven.

Below is the executive order’s first section. You can click on the link to read it in its entirety.

Executive Order 14235:

Section 1: Purpose. In 2007, the Congress established the Public Service Loan Forgiveness (PSLF) Program to encourage Americans to enter the public service sector by promising to forgive their remaining student loans after they completed 10 years of service in those jobs while making 10 years of minimum payments.

The prior administration abused the PSLF Program through a waiver process, using taxpayer funds to pay off loans for employees still years away from the statutorily required number of payments. Moreover, instead of alleviating worker shortages in necessary occupations, the PSLF Program has misdirected tax dollars into activist organizations that not only fail to serve the public interest, but actually harm our national security and American values, sometimes through criminal means. The PSLF Program also creates perverse incentives that can increase the cost of tuition, can load students in low-need majors with unsustainable debt, and may push students into organizations that hide under the umbrella of a non-profit designation and degrade our national interest, thus requiring additional Federal funding to correct the negative societal effects caused by these organizations’ federally subsidized wrongdoing.

As President of the United States, I have a duty to protect, preserve, and defend the Constitution and our national security, which includes ending the subsidization of illegal activities, including illegal immigration, human smuggling, child trafficking, pervasive damage to public property, and disruption of the public order, which threaten the security and stability of the United States. Accordingly, it is the policy of my Administration that individuals employed by organizations whose activities have a substantial illegal purpose shall not be eligible for public service loan forgiveness.

Section 2: Restoring Public Service Loan Forgiveness. The Secretary of Education shall propose revisions to 34 CFR 685.219, Public Service Loan Forgiveness Program, in coordination with the Secretary of the Treasury as appropriate, that ensure the definition of “public service” excludes organizations that engage in activities that have a substantial illegal purpose, including: