The Big Payback

Last week, my student loan debt, a total of nearly $55,000, was entirely forgiven. All of it. Gone. Poof. Good riddance. Buh-bye. 

Although the timing of my loan forgiveness aligns nicely with President Biden’s cancellation of up to $10,000 in federal student debt for Americans earning less than $125,000 per year, my own loan forgiveness has absolutely nothing to do with his historic announcement. Rather, my forgiveness is due entirely to the Public Service Loan Forgiveness (PSLF) temporary waiver the same president put into effect in October 2021. 

Now, before I unpack the seemingly endless nonsense related to student loans (and I do – this is a LONG blog), I want to start by explaining, on behalf of the people for whom my same kind of loan forgiveness may apply, how both the program and the temporary waiver work so you too can benefit from this literal once-in-a-lifetime opportunity. Because nearly a year after its announcement and with only one month still left to apply, only 15 percent of the nine million public service workers with student loan debt have filed paperwork to determine their eligibility for the PSLF waiver. So please, if the following applies to you, get on it, and do it now because the waiver expires on Oct. 31, 2022. I did, and here I am, drinking champagne, with a big ass $55,000 weight off my shoulders. 

Public Service Loan Forgiveness Overview

The PSLF Program was created under the College Cost Reduction and Access Act in 2007 during President George W. Bush’s last year of presidency. (That’s right, a Republican president for everyone out there under the impression this was the will of some Democratic socialist). 

The Act, which was passed with bipartisan support by Congress, promised to ease the burden of repayment of student loan debt through a number of modifications to existing programs and the implementation of new programs, including PSLF, which was designed to forgive the remaining balance of a person’s federal student loans after they had made 120 qualifying payments while working in public service (e.g., a nonprofit gig). 

Sounds awesome, right? Totally. Unfortunately, like most well-intended government programs, the PSLF Program had a ridiculous qualification structure and, in the 10 years after its inception, nearly 99% of applicants were denied. 

In 2017, both Congress and the U.S. Department of Education attempted to remedy the situation and provide options for some rejected borrowers which still proved to be unproductive as they only allowed a certain amount to be forgiven for a specific number of people. In other words, a lot of red tape which continued to prove confusing and inaccessible for borrowers. Dumb.   

Flash forward to 2021 and the PSLF temporary waiver, which was purposefully designed to eliminate all the bureaucratic madness and allow public service workers to have their federal student loans forgiven after 10 years of repayment, regardless of their loan program or repayment plan. 

PSLF Waiver Applications

Again, for the people in the back, ONLY 15 PERCENT OF THE NINE MILLION PUBLIC SERVICE WORKERS WITH STUDENT LOAN DEBT HAVE FILED PAPERWORK TRACKING THEIR QUALIFYING PAYMENTS TOWARD PSLF. Fifteen percent, yo! In the same vein, more than 175,000 borrowers have received a total of $10 billion in student debt forgiveness under this new waiver, which is a good thing, but it doesn’t last for much longer. The temporary waiver expires at the end of October, which means you must act now!

If you are employed by a U.S. federal, state, local, or tribal government or not-for-profit organization – a classification that applies to teachers, nurses, veterans, government employees, and countless others who could work on behalf of for-profit organizations for far more money but don’t – you might be eligible for the PSLF Program. To determine whether you qualify, click here. 

If you do in fact qualify, your next step is to complete the PSLF Form, which will require you to provide verification via your Human Resources department regarding your employment history. After the form is completed, simply send it to your loan service provider or to MOHELA, a federal loan service provider that administers the PSLF Program on behalf of the Department of Education. 

If your PSLF form is approved for forgiveness, you will be notified that the entire remaining balance of your eligible student loan will be forgiven, including all outstanding interest and the principal balance. What’s more, if you made payments after your 120th qualifying payment, those payments will be treated as overpayments and be refunded to you as well. And yes, seriously, this is a real thing. 

My Story

Once upon a time, I earned three academic degrees from two esteemed higher education institutions. My first was a bachelor’s degree in magazine journalism from Ball State University; the second was a paralegal certification from Capital University Law School; and the third was a master’s degree in journalism (again) from Ball State. 

From 18 to 24 I worked my ass off academically and borrowed approximately $40,000 to supplement my education (a completely reasonable age-range to be given thousands of dollars in loans that would never, under any other circumstance, be granted otherwise, right?). I never changed my path or my major, and I always worked part-time. 

After graduate school, I was employed by a for-profit company for a number of years before taking a job at a nonprofit institution that would not be surprised in the least by the profanity I use in this blog. I’ve worked for my current employer, in roles I truly love, for 10 years. Roles, I should mention, that REQUIRE the level of education I have achieved. 

At 18, I had absolutely no idea what I was getting myself into in terms of loan repayment. I thought, ‘I’ll be able to pay them off later’ and, ‘this shouldn’t be a problem’ and also, ‘people do this all the time, right?’ The answers to these questions are no, no, and yes. Because after 16 years after earning my last degree, my student loans somehow skyrocketed to $55,000 and have gone down very little as I continued to pay on them regularly. 

In all fairness, as a writer, math has never made much sense to me. However, seeing as how I’ve paid off other debts in my lifetime (including the credit card debt I also incurred at age 18), my student loan debt has never quite added up. How, after paying on my loans for nearly 20 years, has the amount increased by $15,000 with an estimated payoff date of January 2035? That’s 13 years from now and, god willing, my 10-year-old will have also graduated from college by then, too. Huh?  

A few years ago I learned about the PSLF Program and attempted to determine how many of my payments qualified. At the time, even after working for a qualifying nonprofit for several years, none of my previous payments met the qualifications. Not one. For me, it was due to my repayment plan, which, if I changed it to meet the former PSLF standards, would have amounted to nearly double my mortgage each month.

The day I submitted my final paperwork to receive PSLF loan forgiveness.

But regardless of the math or how unprepared I was to take on such a large sum of debt or my employment status, I was always prepared to pay off the loans I took out at 18, 22, and 23. I understood it was my responsibility to pay them back, I never missed a payment, and I also never expected my loans to be forgiven. It was my debt to pay and I’d pay it back. It sucked, but it was what it was…

Until I learned about the PSLF temporary waiver earlier this year and how I could be (and eventually was) relieved of 55-fucking-thousand-dollars of student loan debt after working for my current nonprofit employer for 10 years. And let’s just say it was then when I comfortably basked in my loan forgiveness just as much as the loan providers casually basked in lending me thousands of dollars (and all that compounding interest) they knew would take most of my lifetime to pay back.

Nonprofits are one thing. What about the people getting $10,000 in student loan relief?

On the same day I learned about my PSLF loan forgiveness, Biden made good on a campaign promise to forgive up to $10,000 in federal student loans ($20,000 for Pell Grant recipients), which amounted to approximately 43 million borrowers kissing a portion of their student loan debt goodbye at a time when Americans collectively owe about $1.75 trillion in federal student loans.

Now a lot of people will scream ‘inflation’ or ‘my tax dollars’ or ‘what about me?’ And, in all honesty, I don’t care. In 2008 we bailed out a boatload of corporate entities and their employees who make more than any of us will ever see in a lifetime and no one seemed to care nearly as much about that. 

And let me clarify, our tax dollars are NOT being used to pay off student loan debt. While canceled federal student loans will be added to the federal deficit, since our government has run on a deficit every year since 2001 without a lot of adverse effects, many experts say it’s unlikely Americans will see much of an impact from canceling student loans. Also, please remember that whatever tax money was initially used to fund the loans has already been covered by the ridiculous interest rates borrowers were (and are) expected to pay, too.

As for inflation, even Wall Street experts say that wiping out this kind of debt will have very little impact on inflation, especially since student loan repayments will resume in January and Biden’s plan only covers a small portion of a typical borrower’s outstanding loans. In other words, folks will still be paying back predatory loans they can’t understand for MANY years to come, so calm the fuck down.

But kids don’t need college. They need the trades. 

I couldn’t agree more. I firmly believe high schools need to advertise union apprenticeships and other non-college-related opportunities the same way they advertise college. My father’s union work paid for most (but clearly not all) of my undergraduate education, and my appreciation for and love of the trades runs deep in my veins. Not all high school students are prepared for or should attend college. You’re damn right. Union yes. Always.

With that said, it’s also important we think about the inverse: what about the students who aren’t cut out for or have no interest in the trades or another non-college-related profession? What about the students, and especially women and minority students, who have very little chance of solidifying a career path without a college degree? Should we not go to college to be able to work a job that fits both our interests and our skill sets? Should we settle for something we hate and make less than we could simply because of the hindrance of student loans?  

I often think about a compliment I regularly receive, which is, ‘you have a way with words.’ While I’m grateful for the admiration, it shouldn’t go without saying that my written abilities are far from God-given. Rather, they’re the result of exercising, quite extensively, the written word in and outside of the classroom and within the workforce I wouldn’t be a part of without my college education. I don’t call myself a writer simply because I can. I call myself a writer because I’ve earned it. 

Ok, fine. So what’s the answer?

Biden’s three-part plan is an excellent start. Not only does it provide up to $10,000 in debt cancellation to non-Pell Grant recipients, it also cuts monthly payments in half for undergraduate loans, which will cap monthly payments at 5% of a borrower’s income – half the rate that borrowers must pay now under most existing plans. The plan also includes building upon the temporary PSLF waiver so that even more borrowers who have worked in nonprofit roles can receive appropriate credit toward loan forgiveness. All in all, it’s a pretty decent plan and you should read it. 

Beyond Biden’s plan though, colleges and universities should take a long and hard look at how much they’re charging for an undergraduate education. I mean, seriously, the rent is too damn high. According to the Georgetown University Center on Education and the Workforce, between 1980 and 2020, the average price of tuition, fees, and room and board for an undergraduate degree increased by 169%. That’s insane. Higher education can and should be attainable for everyone, and it shouldn’t be reliant on upwards of $30,000 in debt, which is the current average load according to the College Board.

But even if colleges and universities don’t take that long hard look at their price structures (which they probably won’t), another actionable step is for high schools to educate students about money and loans and the cost of, well, everything. Before I went to college, no one, and I mean NO ONE, discussed loans or interest rates or anything financial with me. Not a damn soul. So when I say I had no idea what I was getting into when I began taking out loans to fund my education, I mean it. I had NO clue. At the time it just seemed like something people did so I did it, too. Helping students understand this kind of burden before they’re bogged down by it makes a lot of sense. After all, if we’re prepared to send students off as “adults” into the “real world,” perhaps educating them about their financial future is something high schools should do prior to graduation day. 

Finally, and in conclusion, I would be remiss if I didn’t say that it doesn’t matter to me whether student debt relief is a midterm push to garner more votes for Democrats or a ploy for four more years of Biden in the White House. For me, Republicans dug their own graves ahead of the midterms when they collectively decided throughout the United States to relinquish women of their own bodily autonomy. I mean, honestly, fuck ya’ll. And although Biden is far from my favorite president, I’ve never had any other president eliminate $55,000 in my student loan debt, so Brandon, let’s go (but like, in a good way). 

Title Track: The Payback, James Brown. Listen here.