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Related: Editorials & Other Articles, Issue Forums, Alliance Forums, Region ForumsThe Department of Education has denied 99% of all student loan forgiveness applications.
Secretary of Education Betsy DeVos is at it again.
She's been flouting a federal law that promises student loan forgiveness to people that go into public service professions, such as firefighters, a police officers, and teachers. But now, the American Federation of Teachers (AFT), which has 1.7 million members, has sued DeVos to force her to obey the law.
The law is the Public Service Loan Forgiveness Program (PSLF). If public service employees make 120 on-time payments in 10 years, the balance of their loan is forgiven. It was signed into law in 2007 under George W. Bush and had bipartisan support. It was meant as an incentive to get people to go into professions where they often don't make enough money to pay off massive loans.
And it worked. Nearly 32 million people are eligible for PSLF. The year 2017 was the first one that people hit the 10-year mark and could apply for the loan forgiveness they'de been promised. By March 2019, 76,002 people had applied. Only 864 were approved, or around 1%.
Now, the teachers have had enough. As the president of the AFT, Randi Weingarten, put it: "Public Service Loan Forgiveness is a right, but Betsy DeVos has turned it into a crapshoot." Weingarten went on to say that DeVos's actions have "blocked [the] path to the middle class" for tens of thousands of people who were relying on loan forgiveness and made all their payments on time and in good faith.
The plaintiffs are teachers and other public service workers who made the required 120 on-time payments, only to be refused loan relief by the Department of Education. The lawsuit alleges that the Department used several techniques, such as miscounting payments or declaring applications incomplete, to deny the applications.
https://shareblue.com/teachers-forced-sue-betsy-devos-blocking-student-loan-forgiveness/
RockRaven
(14,966 posts)and I understand that they are "doing their job" and "following orders" and that their own jobs/careers are in jeopardy by defying "orders" from their bosses... but their jobs are ALSO in jeopardy, or should be, if they violate policy or law in favor of orders.
The post-Trump administration era is going to bring a critical issue to a head: are rank-and-file US government functionaries EVER going to be held to account for misdeeds committed under orders or not? If we don't do it now, it will never happen, and that way lies dystopia.
msongs
(67,403 posts)Farmer-Rick
(10,163 posts)Betsy wouldn't have a job anymore. But since it's only people......
Progressive Law
(617 posts)If I don't get my loans forgiven, I am screwed.
pecosbob
(7,538 posts)DeVos' signing of the remaining cases of debt forgiveness already approved from before her tenure 'with extreme displeasure' was a slap in the face of all Americans. This person needs to be on the list for deportation to Argentina with all the rest of the nazis.