Looking for a status update on this legislation? See here.
Pending legislation would provide federal student loan forgiveness for long-term non-profit workers with outstanding student loans. Basic requirements for eligibility would be ten years working at non-profits and 120 student loan payments.
It seems good to me, but now that the idea is in my head, I wish the terms were more like Teach For America or the Peace Corps.
Read more at Arlene Spencer’s blog, thegrantplant.
Update: As of September 27, this bill was signed by the President and has now become law. See here for more details and a summary.
Other features of the bill that will be of interest to students and alumni of our expensive higher education system include the following (quoted from here.)
-Increases the maximum Pell Grant award to $7,600 for the 2008-09 academic year, $8,600 for 2009-10, $9,600 for 2010-11, $10,600 for 2011-12, and $11,600 for 2012-13 (Title I (sec. 101 (b))).
-Repeals existing tuition sensitivity provisions, which reduce Pell Grant eligibility for students attending lower-cost schools (Title I (sec. 101 (d))).
-Reduces interest rates on Stafford and other federally backed loans from 6.8 percent to 3.4 percent over the period from 2008-2013 (Title I (sec. 111 (a))).
–Provides for $5,000 in loan forgiveness over a period of five years for those employed in areas of national need, including early childhood educators, nurses, librarians, foreign language specialists, highly qualified teachers in bilingual education or in low-income schools, child welfare workers, speech-language pathologists, those engaged in national service, school counselors, and public sector employees (Title I (sec. 131)).
–Releases public servants from federal loan obligations after 120 payments over ten years of repayment (Title I (sec. 132)).
Forgiving student loans should be more widespread I think, non-profits should have it for sure. If I were president then I think I would look closely at a wider ‘forgivness’ program coupled with a partial-payoff program too.
What a fantastic idea. Though ten years in non-profit work makes paying big student loans difficult. I too wish it were more generous.
I am totally for this as ‘tuition reimbursement’ is rarely offered for those of us who work for non-profit agencies.