Student Loan Forgiveness For Half a Million Public Servants at Risk

In early February, Betsy DeVos was confirmed as Education Secretary. Two Republicans, Senators Murkowski (AK) and Collins (ME), joined the entire Democratic caucus to force an historic tie-breaking vote from Vice President Pence.  Read more at this link.  Her installation to a position of power over our education system means she spends every day implementing policies with destructive consequences for our country.

Public Service Loan Forgiveness was created a decade ago.... the official ed.gov website describes it as a "broad, employment-based forgiveness program for federal student loans." Anyone who works for the government or a nonprofit can have their loans erased after 10 years of on-time monthly payments, the post explains.

Early in August, DeVos's Department of Education struck again, filing a legal motion that could have big ramifications for half a million teachers, social workers, police officers and other public servants.  

The motion asserts that there has been no final decision on whether these people will have their student debt forgiven, as they had believed.

 The department says it has taken no final action on any of those half a million PSLF applicants. It may have accepted their paperwork, the filing states, but those are only "interim, non-binding, individualized determinations."  .... the filing states that final eligibility for PSLF is decided only after those 10 years of payments

These are our friends and neighbors choosing to spend their lives serving our communities.  The Department of Education under Republican control is spitting in their faces and pulling the rug out from under their lives.  No teacher, no police officer should vote Republican.

...many people in the last 10 years made binding life decisions based on the promise of Public Service Loan Forgiveness. They chose lower-paying jobs in the public sector, and enrolled in payment plans, as instructed, that left their loans piling up interest. Ten years into their careers, if stuck with thousands of dollars in debt they hadn't planned on, many will have to forego buying a home or saving for retirement.

Sources: https://studentaid.ed.gov/sa/repay-loans/forgiveness-cancellation/public-service

http://www.npr.org/2017/08/02/541126799/new-fears-for-public-service-loan-forgiveness