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Public servants across Virginia - teachers, social workers, government workers, servicemembers, and others - who take on crushing student loan debt often struggle to make ends meet. The Public Service Loan Forgiveness (PSLF) program allows borrowers to eliminate their remaining debt after making years of payments and working in public service for a decade. This program helps us draw the brightest minds into education and other service professions where they can make a big impact.
Yesterday, the Senate passed a bill that includes $350 million in funding for the PSLF program. I had heard from Virginians who thought they were eligible for loan forgiveness, but because of a technical glitch, they were being denied the relief they deserved. I'm proud I was able to get the Senate to pass legislation to help fix that issue, and this additional funding will help those borrowers who were in the wrong payment program remain eligible for loan forgiveness.
This is about supporting the teachers, social workers, military personnel and other public servants who have dedicated their life's work to serving our communities.
Comment: Sometimes students hear about "loan forgiveness" and expect it to save them money. It won't. If you've been making regular payments on a loan long enough to qualify, 5-25 years depending on where you work in what field and how much you owe, you've paid enough interest that the lender is making some profit on the loan. The most frugal way to deal with a student loan is to pay it off as fast as possible--no penalty for prepayment, so the ideal way would be to pay the full amount right after graduation. Or, failing that, if you're taking home $2000/month, live on $1000 and pay the other $1000 on your loan until the loan's all gone.
Better yet, consider the right-wing route of not going to college...right away. Nobody's saying you shouldn't go to college, and university and medical school if appropriate, but you can go to college while you're still young enough to be part of the teen social scene if you go to trade school first and do a grown-up job before and during your college days. I've often thought that I could have finished the B.A. in English, B.S. in psychology, and R.D. in dietetics of my dreams if I'd only done a trade school certificate at the local community college first. Student labor is part of the Berea tradition but, at other schools where tuition is more burdensome, it's a lot easier to stay in school once you're earning enough to look at a tuition bill without feeling faint.
I especially recommend the trade school route to the four of you who arrived, one after another, to a couple of parents whose medical profile indicated that they have no children. Adore you though they do, they're doing well to have lived this long; they're not going to be able to send you to the kind of universities where some of you probably belong. Neither are your aunts, uncles, or grandparents. Paying your own way is part of the family tradition.
But, if you're considering teaching, note what he said about education. (Inside joke? In some states, of which Virginia is one, students can get a substantial scholarship for agreeing to teach math in an inner city school or a remote rural one.) Nationwide, teaching in a school that has a hard time finding teachers is the way to qualify for loan forgiveness in only five years.
Shabby people are everywhere, but you might be surprised by what nice people you meet in the inner city schools.
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