Policy changes that could lower or eliminate payments are going into effect, but to be eligible people with loans may need to act fast
By Scott Medintz
Fifteen years into her career as a behavioral therapist—much of it spent working with autistic and emotionally disabled children at a public K-12 school in Gilbert, Ariz.—Meghann Sherman says she still had $45,000 to pay on the $100,000 of debt she’d taken on to earn her degrees.
Then, last October, Sherman heard that the Department of Education had temporarily expanded eligibility for the Public Service Loan Forgiveness Program (PSLF), which promises to erase any remaining student debt for borrowers who work in qualifying public-service jobs after 10 years of making on-time payments.
Sherman applied and, in late November, got a letter showing her new loan balance to be zero—along with a refund check for about $700, because she’d made more than the 120 monthly payments required for forgiveness.
“I can’t even begin to describe the burden that was lifted,” says Sherman, who is now building an emergency fund for the first time in her life. “I feel like I can breathe.”
Sherman remains one of the lucky few, though many others now stand to benefit. Hundreds of thousands of people are known to be eligible for the program, but a combination of byzantine rules and years of mismanagement by the Department of Education and private loan servicers have long prevented them from getting the relief they’d earned, according…
