Teachers – they’re some of the most impactful people in our society. They put time and energy into making the lives of America’s youth better every day. However, when it comes to teacher student loan forgiveness, they’re not receiving the kind of respect and fair treatment they deserve.

Over the years numerous lawsuits have surfaced against the government and its third partycontractors. Most recently, the American Federation of Teachers (one of the largest teachers unions in the US) filed a lawsuit against the Department of Education alleging that the public service loan forgiveness system is such a mess it violates the Constitution and federal law.

BACKGROUND

Student loan forgiveness for teachers, in theory, should be a simple system. Essentially all public service workers need to do to qualify for this type of loan forgiveness is to:

1. Work in public service for a total of ten years

2. Make monthly payments on time

3. Have the correct type of loan required by the program

4. Make those monthly payments in an income-based program

Sounds pretty easy, right? However, if borrowers are not notified about which type of loan they’re required to have then it quickly becomes easy to see how things can go wrong.

DETAILS ABOUT THE LATEST LAWSUIT

Recently, the American Federation of Teachers brought a lawsuit against the Department of Education. This is just one of the many suits the student loan industry has seen over the last few years. The American Federation of Teachers’ primary goals for the lawsuit are:

1. To court order the Department of Education to fix the loan forgiveness system for public service workers so that it reaches legal standards

2. Have the Department of Education set up an appeals process for people who believe that they have not received fair treatment

Initially, the government set up loan forgiveness for public workers to benefit both teachers and the government. In this system, teachers would have a straightforward path to loan forgiveness, and the government would be able to attract more people into public service. As a result, over one million people applied for public service loan forgiveness.

According to Chris Arnolds article, ‘Broken Promises’, “only 1% of the people who think they’ve made their 10 years of payments and apply for loan forgiveness are getting approved” (1). Teachers and other public service workers have been left to pick up the pieces from a mess that allegedly has been caused by the loan forgiveness system’s lack of clear communication to public service workers regarding program qualification requirements.

NAVIGATING TEACHER STUDENT LOAN FORGIVENESS

The loan forgiveness industry is always changing. New laws and policies are continually going into effect. Trying to navigate and keep up with all of the legislation changes in the student loan industry can quickly become a full-time job. However, if you have a professional company like Hope Credit in your corner, it can make things a lot less stressful. If you’re looking at applying for teacher student loan forgiveness or have questions about potential options, we would be happy to talk with you! Feel free to give us a call at (760) 916-9313.

Sources: 1. Arnold, Chris. (2019, July 15). Broken Promises: Teachers Sue U.S. Over Student Loans That Weren’t Forgiven. Retrieved from https://www.wrvo.org/post/broken-promises-teachers-sue-us-over-student-loans-werent-forgiven