Hello,

Every day at the AFT, I meet someone burdened by student debt: Nurses struggling to make their car payments and pay off their loans at the same time. Paraprofessionals still living with their parents or other family members to save money on rent so they can pay their loans. Accountants who have put off having children because they cannot afford to start a family. Retirees who are still paying off their college education from years before. Teachers who diligently made their payments, only to learn a decade later that they were ineligible for the loan forgiveness they were promised.

Crippling student debt and the predatory practices of student loan servicers are huge problems. Congress has tried to address it with a number of programs, including the Public Service Loan Forgiveness program. Public Service Loan Forgiveness was meant to encourage people to devote themselves to public service and to help ease the crushing burden of student debt for teachers, nurses, police officers, firefighters and other public service workers who meet program criteria and make enough on-time payments.

But Secretary Betsy DeVos and her Department of Education have other ideas. They’ve denied almost everyone who worked hard to qualify.

That’s why, yesterday, I filed a lawsuit, along with eight AFT members and the AFT itself, against Betsy DeVos and the Department of Education, to hold them accountable for their gross mismanagement of the Public Service Loan Forgiveness program.

This lawsuit has just been filed and will work its way through the courts, but you can take action right now by telling DeVos: It’s time to do your job. Stop wrongfully denying public employees’ applications for Public Service Loan Forgiveness!

While public service workers held up their end of the bargain, DeVos and the Education Department failed to hold up theirs. For years, DeVos and department officials wrongfully denied Public Service Loan Forgiveness applications, forgiving fewer than 1 percent of the thousands of eligible borrowers who applied.

DeVos shouldn’t sabotage such an important program. She needs to do her job and stop denying people who are seeking relief.

Collectively, the United States now holds $1.6 trillion in student debt. This crisis touches millions of Americans, regardless of age, race, profession or state. These are issues of opportunity and funding, a living wage, and quality of life.

It’s time for DeVos and the Education Department to make good on the promise we made to millions of public workers. Click here to tell them: Do your job and stop neglecting Public Service Loan Forgiveness!

In unity,
Randi Weingarten
AFT President