随着乔·拜登总统的前进第二次尝试免除学生贷款债务在最高法院以6比3落败后，他的政府也被宣传公共服务贷款豁免(PSLF)计划的好处作为一些借款人的另一种选择，老师们分享了他们是如何受益的。
PSLF计划于2007年在布什政府期间首次获得国会授权，取消教育工作者、消防员和警察等政府雇员以及非营利雇员和其他提供公共服务的人的学生债务，这些人至少要偿还10年的贷款。
然而，根据美国教育部副部长詹姆斯·克瓦尔的说法，最初的PSLF计划“执行不力”，许多借款人未能成功获得宽恕。
Kvaal今年早些时候告诉ABC新闻，在2017年至2021年期间，1.8%的合格人员通过PSLF获得了宽恕。“在许多情况下，这是因为程序中的细则，”他说。
2021年10月，拜登政府发布了为期一年的有限豁免，暂时改变了PSLF的规则。Kvaal将暂时的变化比作一个有缺陷的系统的“重置”。
自那时以来，超过615，000名借款人获得了420亿美元的救济。(官员们并不追踪每种职业有多少人通过PSLF获得批准。)
据倡导者和教师称，这些被取消的贷款对从事教育工作的人来说意义重大。
2023年6月30日，乔·拜登总统在白宫罗斯福厅发表演讲。
埃文·伍奇/美联社
“这是一个奇迹，”爱荷华州的教师领袖杰米·沃克·萨利斯(Jamie Walker-Sallis)告诉美国广播公司新闻，他在2021年使用了PSLF，并补充说“几乎10万美元——你知道这是一种解脱吗?那就像背上有个怪物。不是猴子，是怪物。”
教育家们一直在努力解决全国范围内的人员短缺。也有一些挑战增加从新冠肺炎疫情开始。倡导者说，经济压力只会让他们更难留在教室里。
全国教育协会主席贝基·普林格尔去年夏天告诉美国广播公司新闻说:“太多的教育工作者离开了这个行业，因为他们不能靠教师的工资组建家庭。”“这(学生债务)直接影响了我们的教育工作者。这就是为什么我们与我们的学生并肩战斗，取消所有债务。我们不会停止，直到完成这一点。”
据非营利倡导组织教育信托基金称，像沃克-萨利斯这样的黑人女性比其他任何人群都欠有更多的学生债务。沃克-萨利斯说，她希望很快获得博士学位，但她不想再遇到经济障碍。
“现在我没有大学债务了，我正努力回去，”她说。“你想继续成长，你想继续发展，但不能跨越那个障碍。你不想在努力攀爬的时候给自己制造另一个问题。”
格雷戈里·巴格曼在华盛顿特区杰克逊-里德高中担任图书管理员和校长助理已有20多年。他担心自己下半辈子会背负23万多美元的学生贷款债务。
今年收到邮件通知说他的贷款已经通过PSLF被免除，他告诉ABC新闻，他简直不敢相信自己的眼睛。
“这就像中了彩票，”他说。取消债务意味着他可以把新家传给女儿，确保家庭的财务安全。
“当我离开这个世界时，我希望能够给我的女儿一些东西，”他说。“我知道，无论我投资什么，无论我在做什么——当我离开这个世界时——都是为了我的女儿。”
对于其他教育工作者来说，仅仅是PSLF的可能性就让他们松了一口气。
卡尔文·柯立芝的米歇尔·卡尔胡恩(Michelle Calhoon)正在寻求免除32.9万美元的贷款，她说:“在这个PSLF计划和PSLF临时改革之前，我认为我会背负(学生贷款债务)，但现在我没有压力了。”。
卡尔胡恩是一位单身母亲，她十几岁的女儿在巴尔的摩上私立学校。这位华盛顿的教育工作者不知道一旦她的学生债务偿还重新开始，她将如何获得住房贷款和支付学费。
但她仍抱有希望，她曾在多个学校系统的公共服务部门工作过。
“必须支付我女儿的教育费用和我自己的教育费用的想法阻止了我拥有一所房子，”卡尔胡恩告诉ABC新闻。“我希望他们能出院。我准备买个家。”
尼克·富勒，27岁，还没有资格参加PSLF。他在密歇根州上半岛地区的收入不到5万美元，是年轻教师中的一员，当还款开始时，他们可能面临更艰难的决定。
“这使得找到第二份工作的可能性更大，”富勒说，他还欠着16000美元的学生贷款。
富勒在他夏令营顾问工作的小屋接受采访时说:“我实际上也申请了一些不同的工作——仍然是教学领域——但在工资更高的地区。”“这些钱有很大一部分都存在我的银行账户里，一旦我的学生贷款到期，我可以用来搬家或偿还一部分贷款。”
Teachers share how revamped forgiveness program helped with their student loans
As President Joe Biden moves forwardwith a second attempt at student loan debt forgiveness, following a 6-3 defeat at the Supreme Court, his administration has also beentouting the benefits of the Public Service Loan Forgiveness (PSLF) programas another option for some borrowers -- and teachers are sharing how they are among those benefiting.
The PSLF program was first congressionally authorized in 2007, during the Bush administration, to cancel student debt for government employees like educators, firefighters and police officers as well as not-for-profit employees and others providing public services who make at least 10 years of payments on their loans.
However, the original PSLF program was "poorly implemented" and many borrowers weren't successfully able to receive forgiveness, according to U.S. Education Undersecretary James Kvaal.
Between 2017 and 2021, 1.8% of those eligible received forgiveness through PSLF, Kvaal told ABC News earlier this year. "In many cases, that's because of the fine print in the program," he said.
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In October 2021, for one year, the Biden administration issued what it called a limited waiver temporarily changing the rules of PSLF. Kvaal likened the temporary changes to a "reset" of a flawed system.
Since then, more than 615,000 borrowers have been approved for $42 billion in relief. (Officials don't track how many people from each profession are approved through PSLF.)
Those canceled loans can mean a lot for people working in education, according to advocates and teachers.
"That's a miracle," Jamie Walker-Sallis, a teacher leader in Iowa who used PSLF in 2021, told ABC News, adding "almost $100,000 -- you know what kind of relief that is? That's like having a monster on your back. Not a monkey, a monster."
Educators have been grappling withstaffing shortages across the country. There have also beenincreased challengessince the start of the COVID-19 pandemic. And financial stress only makes it harder for them to stay in the classroom, advocates say.
"Too many educators leave the profession because they can't start families on a teacher's pay," National Education Association President Becky Pringle told ABC News last summer. "This [student debt] impacts our educators directly. That's why we are fighting alongside our students to cancel all debt. And we won't stop until that's done."
Black women like Walker-Sallis hold more student debt than any other demographic, according to the nonprofit advocacy organization The Education Trust. Walker-Sallis said she hopes to obtain her doctorate soon but she doesn't want another financial barrier.
"Now that I have no college debt, I'm struggling to go back," she said. "You want to continue to grow, you want to continue to develop, but not with that hurdle. You don't want to create another problem for yourself as you try to climb."
Gregory Bargeman has been a librarian and assistant principal at Jackson-Reed High School in Washington, D.C., for more than 20 years. He was worried that he'd live with $230,000-plus in student loan debt for the rest of his life.
After receiving a notice in the mail this year that said his loans had been forgiven through PSLF, he told ABC News he couldn't believe his eyes.
"It's like winning the lottery," he said. Having that debt canceled means he can pass on his new home to his daughter and ensure his family's financial security.
"When I leave this world, I want to be able to give my daughter something," he said. "I know that whatever I'm investing in or whatever I'm doing -- when I leave this life -- it will be for my daughter."
For other educators, the mere possibility of PSLF offers relief.
"Before this PSLF program, and temporary PSLF change, I thought I would be burdened with it [student loan debt] but now I am not stressed," said Calvin Coolidge's Michelle Calhoon, who is seeking to have $329,000 in loans forgiven.
Calhoon is a single mom of a teenage daughter who goes to private school in Baltimore. The D.C. educator doesn't know how she will qualify for a home loan and pay tuition once her student debt payments restart.
But she's holding out hope, having worked in public service for multiple school systems.
"The idea of having to pay for my daughter's education and pay for my own [education] is preventing me from owning a house," Calhoon told ABC News. "I'm hoping that they get discharged. I'm going to buy a home."
Nick Fuller, 27, doesn't yet qualify for PSLF. He earns just under $50,000 in the upper peninsula region of Michigan and is part of a generation of younger teachers who could be facing even tougher decisions when repayments start.
"It makes getting a second job more likely," said Fuller, who has $16,000 left in student loan debt.
"I've actually been applying for some different jobs as well -- still in the teaching field -- but in districts that pay more money," Fuller said in an interview from a cabin at his summer camp counseling job. "A lot of this money is just stockpiling away in my bank account to use to either move or to pay down my student loans a little bit once they come back and out of forbearance."
