In a further example of the controversial United States Public Service Loan Forgiveness (PSLF) program’s failure to deliver, thousands of teachers have been rejected because they could not get the Government to approve their work as a public service.
In some cases, educators were rejected for seemingly minor mix-ups, such as checking the wrong box or missing a date next to a signature.
Others were rejected on the basis that their school did not qualify as a public service employer.
The disclosure suggests further bureaucratic problems with the management of the program which has come under fire for rejecting more than 98 per cent of all borrowers who applied.
Much of the controversy has centred on borrowers being rejected because they had the wrong type of Federal loan or enrolled in the wrong repayment plan.
However, new data shows how the Education Department rejected teachers and other school employees even though there was no dispute that teachers qualified under the law.
The data is fuelling fresh pressure on the Government to make good on President Joe Biden’s campaign promise to “fix” the PSLF program.
Secretary for Education, Miguel Cardona said that making changes to the program was a priority but his Agency had not committed to the sweeping debt relief for Public Servants that many unions were seeking.
President of the American Federation of Teachers, Randi Weingarten (pictured) said the data shone a light on just how wrong, widespread and farcical PSLF denials had become.
“It reveals how minor clerical errors can derail an entire application, handing a debt sentence to educators who’ve dedicated their lives to helping children,” Ms Weingarten said.
The PSLF, established by President George W. Bush in 2008, promised that if graduates spent 10 years in lower-paid Public Service jobs and made regular repayments on their student loans during that time their loan balance would be forgiven.
However, when the first applicants sought loan forgiveness in 2018 they ran into the hostile Administration of Donald Trump, which criticised the cost to the taxpayer and actively sought ways of scrapping the scheme altogether.
Washington, 23 September 2021
