The White House has a plan to provide some debt relief to students pursuing a career in public service. Deena, who didn’t want to be identified by her full name, hopes it will change her life.
Deena, a dentistry student at USC, is $500,000 in debt. She said she suffers from high levels of anxiety, as just the thought of it has taken a toll on her mental health..
“I don’t know who would be able to forgive the half a million dollars times 144 students in my class,” Deena said. “But if it does, great.”
Earlier this month, the Biden administration announced major changes to the federal Public Service Loan Forgiveness Program this past Wednesday, promising to provide debt relief to teachers, nurses, firefighters, military personnel and others who go into public service jobs.
Since many public service workers find it challenging to pay back their student debt, this program is designed to help alleviate this problem.
According to the U.S. Department of Education, the program will help over half a million public borrowers.
The changes will allow borrowers to count prior payments they made as going toward payments made under the program, regardless of what type of loan program they have or consolidated previous loans into, as long as they worked for a public service employer.
The federal student loan repayments that paused in March of 2020 are set to resume in February of 2022. The main criteria for this program is to those who have worked for a public service job for 10 years or more and made 120 loan repayments.
The program was designed in 2007 and signed into law by former President George W. Bush to help public service workers repay their student loans since the average U.S. public service worker makes less than an employee in the for-profit sector.
“I’m providing a service to the world,” Deena said. “Also, the pay the dentists get in Southern California specifically is not as good as it is elsewhere. So the ratio between our debt to our income is trash right now.”
Even after years in their profession, many public service employees who received a degree from a highly accredited university like USC find it hard to pay off their student loans.
“Education is supposed to be the vehicle that gives you upward socioeconomic mobility. But if you are totally hampered, it’s like a big anchor dragging you down,” said Cathy Creasia, director of accreditation and credentialing at the Rossier School of Education. “You know, people who are trying to get home loans, this is a huge albatross. I think it’s imperative that somehow this is addressed.”
Cresia, who has worked as an educator for over 20 years, said paying off her student loans and balancing the high cost of living in California is a daily struggle.
“I would say that it’s an equity issue that needs to be addressed and fast,” Creasia said.
A previous version of this story included Deena’s last name. It has been removed from this story.