All right. The bite administration is now moving to
overhaul the rules for a student loan forgiveness program that
would make it easier for more public sector workers to
qualify for debt relief. Now, according to the
Department of Education, roughly 55,000 borrowers of the 1.3
million enrolled in the program which began in 2000 and
seven will now be closer to loan forgiveness. Under
the temporary changes, eligible borrowers would get the chance
to get their loans erase through october 2022 joining us
. Now to discuss more is the executive director at
student loan crisis centre Cody Hallahan um Cody, thank
you so much for being here. What? This
is a huge announcement obviously right for so many of
people with student loan debt, certainly those in the
public sector space for those who have been eagerly waiting
for this loan to be given. Can you talk
to us a little bit about these temporary changes and
what borrowers can expect? Yeah. So for those
that aren't familiar and are listening today, this program
, the public service loan forgiveness program was designed in
2007 with the idea that if you gave 10 years
a decade of public service as a teacher, a
nurse, a veteran, whatever it may be,
then you should not have the burden of student loan
debt. The problem is this program has been failing
from day one because of a bunch of red tape
and technicalities that block people from this relief. So
today the Department of Education, they announced a long
list of small but really important fixes that will guarantee
that folks that should have had their student loans forgiven
, can actually get the relief that they were promised
by law. You know, in the past,
some of the requirements to be eligible for the program
have really causes a bunch of confusion. Who,
who is the program available to exactly if you can
break that down and what do you kind of need
to qualify here? Great question because the qualifications are
important. So there's two buckets of workers that can
qualify. There are people who work for government agencies
. And when I say a government agency, that
means you could be even a custodian at town halls
in your city. And if your employer or the
person who signs your check is a government entity,
then you qualify. But it also includes, um
, you know, firefighters first responders, teachers as
well. And then the other bucket are people who
work for non profits and charities. Uh, so
if you work for a qualifying five oh one C
three nonprofit, you know, these are the people
that run food banks and other really important uh,
organizations in our communities. Then you can qualify for
this forgiveness. In the past, there were other
qualifications related to what type of loan you had,
what type of repayment you are in. Those two
rules are going to be expanded so that it doesn't
matter what type of loan you have, you can
still qualify if you're paying back a federal student loan
just from past experience in reporting, I know that
, you know, since the beginning of this,
this program, there's been a lot of controversy around
just a number of borrowers that have actually had their
debt wiped out. Can you talk about that number
and essentially why it takes so long to get that
debt wiped out for those who have had the chance
to have it done? Yeah. Well, historically
, 99% of people have been denied from public service
loan forgiveness. But that's because when the bill was
passed, uh, you know, previous administrations and
the student loan companies themselves did very little to actually
educate people about what they needed to do to meet
all of these complicated qualifying factors. Um, now
, looking back over a decade that has meant that
millions or hundreds of thousands of people have been blocked
from relief. So this administration recognizes that this program
, it should have worked. It hasn't. So
let's make these qualifying factors much easier to uh,
to meet and make it much easier for people to
actually get the student loan forgiveness that they were promised
. And that's why we are thrilled here about this
announcement. We it's a collective sigh of relief from
so many borrowers we talked to, given the point
that you just made there, I wonder is there
a concern if the biden administration doesn't win another term
, could this kind of be reversed essentially. So
people can get excited kinda start adding accruing time for
the student loan forgiveness and then the hopes get wiped
away. Well, you know, first, I
would say that this program was passed in 2007 during
the Bush administration over the years it has had bipartisan
support because obviously veterans, people who serve our country
first responders that have helped us get through the COVID-19
pandemic, they obviously deserve relief. And it's very
politically challenging to communicate why you want to take that
away from them. So I don't think it's gonna
be a problem. But I will say this fix
. It is just temporary. And so we're going
to continue to advocate and fight to guarantee that the
fixes to public service loan forgiveness are permanent broadening this
out a little bit here. I wonder if the
Education Department also working to help clear debt for other
borrowers. Perhaps, you know, former students who
attended nonprofit schools, for example. Yes. So
that's actually part of what this administration has been doing
. This isn't the first uh fix for program.
So the biden administration has tried to streamline the process
of giving debt relief to people who are totally disabled
. They've also tried to address other issues when it
comes to helping people who are defrauded by predatory for
profit colleges. This administration really has done a lot
of work on making currently existing laws actually work the
way they are intended. But as advocates, we
still want the broad debt cancellation that the president promised
on the campaign trail. That was immediate relief as
part of the covid response and then long term student
debt cancellation for millions of other people. We haven't
seen that yet, but it's at the top of
our priority list and we're going to keep fighting for
that. You know, certainly back to the initial
program. You know, obviously a lot of optimism
around this news, but you know, going back
to its historical, um, you know, tenure
as a program into your point, only 1% of
those who applied for this relief has actually gotten it
. Some have called it, you know, a
bit of a failure. What do you think it
actually takes for people to have more confidence behind just
the optimism of this announcement That they will actually get
to a point where the student loan debt is forgiven
, especially those, 99% of those who have applied
and have just gone through the disappointment of not having
their student loan forgive forgiven after a decade of service
. I think step one is, we need to
see that these proposals like fixing public service loan forgiveness
actually work. And I know that this Department of
Education is committed to making sure that it actually works
for those who are applying, but we need to
see it. We need to have stories of people
who tell us, hey, my loans were forgiven
and my life has changed and so we're seeking out
those borrowers, we're gonna plug borrowers into this program
so that they get relief at the same time.
I think that there is a lot of distrust in
the government because the student loan system has really harmed
generations of families and you know, taken away people's
ability to access the american dream. So broad based
debt cancellation. Something that cleans the slate for so
many borrowers I think is the number one priority,
not only as a fix for the economy, not
only as a solution to the challenges of the pandemic
, but has a long term solution to make sure
that people who got an education trust that their,
that their government is investing in education because they want
what's best for them, not just a dysfunctional student
loan system where for profit companies can benefit off the
backs of everyday people, where you are at the
forefront there with potential access to some of the stories
of those whose lives now maybe change, potentially by
finally getting the student loan forgiveness forgiveness that they have
hoped for for, who knows how long now,
keep us posted on some of those stories. We'd
love to hear them. Executive director at the student
loans. The student debt crisis centre Cody Hunan Ian
, thank you so much Again