AFT Sues Betsy DeVos over Mismanaged, Deceptive Public Service Loan Forgiveness Program
The federal Public Service Loan Forgiveness program has denied 99 percent of borrowers who—with the expectation their student loans would be forgiven after a decade—have worked for ten years in public service professions.
In May, Politico‘s Kimberly Hefling described the depth of the problems in the federal Public Service Loan Forgiveness program: “The nation’s student loan forgiveness program for public servants is a disaster, it’s widely agreed. The numbers are mind-boggling. Only about 1 percent of the teachers, nurses, public defenders, military personnel and other public servants applying for student loan relief under the Public Service Loan Forgiveness program are succeeding. That leaves tens of thousands of frustrated borrowers with student loans they thought would be forgiven after they worked a decade on the job… In fall 2017, after the first wave of borrowers hit the 10-year mark of service for eligibility in the program, the chaos started to publicly unfold.”
Hefling reports that the program has been politically divisive since its inception in 2007: “When the program was signed into law in 2007, Democrats controlled both chambers of Congress. President George W. Bush threatened to veto the legislation, but ultimately signed it.”
The Washington Post‘s Danielle Douglas-Gabriel reports that last Thursday, the American Federation of Teachers (AFT) sued Education Secretary DeVos, “alleging gross mismanagement” of the program.
Earlier lawsuits have been filed against the companies with which the U.S. Department of Education contracts to manage the program—Navient, FedLoan Servicing and others. Douglas-Gabriel describes the lawsuit filed last week by the American Federation of Teachers, which, CONTINUE READING: AFT Sues Betsy DeVos over Mismanaged, Deceptive Public Service Loan Forgiveness Program | janresseger