Federal student loan forgiveness program rejects almost everyone, again

[mfcorey1]

WASHINGTON - Americans who spend at least a decade in public service jobs and faithfully make their federal student loan payments shouldn't owe any more. That's the idea behind a student debt forgiveness program the Education Department launched under President George W. Bush.

The first batch of teachers, nurses, military personnel and other public servants got to start applying for forgiveness two years ago, and the department - led by President Trump's appointee Betsy DeVos - rejected nearly 99% of them. The department said more than half of them were denied for not having 10 years' worth of qualifying payments. Applicants said that that loan servicers had misled them into enrolling in the wrong loan repayment plans, and a consumer protection agency accused the company overseeing the program of botching paperwork.

Congress stepped in and ordered a program expansion in 2018 to offer the applicants another chance to clear their federal student loans through a new program with simpler requirements. But a year later, a new watchdog report has found, the Education Department has rejected 99% of those applicants too.

https://www.msn.com/en-us/news/us/federal-student-loan-forgiveness-program-rejects-almost-everyone-again/ar-AAGRHL9?li=BBnb7Kz&ocid=spartandhp

[Ilsa]

1. Another set of reasons to hate this administration:

Denials, and being misled.

[Jeffersons Ghost]

2. Yep, I read just read this in my CNN morning briefing...

We are moving toward higher education for only the ultra-wealthy.

[Proud Liberal Dem]

8. I remember a few years ago

that Rick Santorum was openly deriding/mocking the idea that every kid should aspire to higher education. Of course, right-wingers are openly afraid of the idea of an informed and educated populace that is too smart for them to fool.

[FM123]

3. This just makes my blood boil!

[JT45242]

4. Not surprised

I was a teacher for 19 years and now work for an educational non-profit. When I saw all the hoops to go through and the MUCH LARGER payment that I would have had to make for those ten years, I decided that it wasn't worth it to apply.

It was a great piece of PR to offer the program. But, wasn't going to help a lot of people. I had a little over $20K in student loans form getting my master's degree (required to keep my teaching license). The payment plan would have had me pay off almost the entire loan because my degree boosted me into higher payments. I decided that I would be better off paying off a much smaller amount at a low interest rate forever. I know a lot of other teachers who looked into it and saw that the required increase in payment just wasn't feasible or like me, would have meant that there was nothing left to forgive.

This might work if you went to some crazy expensive private undergraduate school then ended up as a teacher or social worker. But if you, like me, became a teacher by going to a state school, then the payments they would require would pay off the debt within ten years and nothing would be forgiven and you would have paid back all the money in money that had not been inflated.

My undergraduate loans had been forgiven under a different program that actually helped teachers and teacher shortages. For each year that I taught in a shortage area (HS chemistry or physics, JH or HS math, or special ed) 20% of my student loan principal was forgiven. For the years that I taught in schools with high poverty, 25% was forgiven. So, in 4 years my loans were paid off. Wish that they had that program for my master's degree since I taught for 10 years in a school with over 50% poverty after I got that degree. Those are the programs that will actually help teachers and social workers.

[calimary]

6. But that's all it is: PR. That's all they've got, and all they ever had.

Shitty ideas that need a shitload of PR to push them down our throats.

[McCamy Taylor]

5. Good for the loan sharks that love Trump

[Proud Liberal Dem]

7. Wow

Defeats the whole purpose of the program.