The U.S. Department of Education-run program providing student loan forgiveness for those in public service rejected 99 percent of applicants in 2018 and 2019. This pool of rejected applicants included those working in the military and government, and as teachers and social workers. The promise was that if you worked in public service for 10 years or more and made certain federal student loan payments on time, what’s left could be forgiven. But the program didn’t work that way. The Department of Education is now fixing the program to address the problems. Applicants can now reapply through a time-limited waiver for all federal student loans.
UMSSW 2004 graduate Deborah Harburger, MSW — now clinical instructor and director of the The Institute for Innovation and Implementation’s Ruth Young Center for Maryland — contributed her own experience to this important story about student loan forgiveness. “People don’t get into social work for the money, but it is important that they can stay in social work. Loan forgiveness is an important part of ensuring that they can.”
UMSSW 2008 graduate Sarah Butts, MSW, and former UMSSW employee — now director of public policy at the National Association of Social Workers — played an instrumental role in advocating for these changes to the loan forgiveness program and is also featured in the story.
Read the full story and find the details and the steps that borrowers can take to reapply here: https://www.fox26houston.com/news/public-service-loan-forgiveness-program-being-overhauled-after-99-rejection-rate
People looking for more information and to find out if they qualify for the waiver or loan program should visit https://studentaid.gov/manage-loans/forgiveness-cancellation/public-service.