You may be eligible for public service loan forgiveness under new rules
After years of pressure and lawsuits from AFT and other advocates, the Department of Education recently announced sweeping changes to the Public Service Loan Forgiveness (PSLF) program that will make it easier to qualify and easier to achieve forgiveness.
For a limited time only through October 31, 2022, the Department of Education is offering a Limited PSLF waiver to count previous payments that were previously ineligible because of loan types or repayment plans. This will help thousands of borrowers who were denied forgiveness in the past and could now be eligible to have their entire loan balance wiped away.
For more information to determine whether you can access the benefit, see this resource page from the AFT and Summer. Summer is a members only benefit offered by AFT.
According to the AFT, more information will continue to be announced in the coming weeks and months, including changes to streamline the application process. The long term structural proposals will take longer to be approved and implemented, and will probably undergo changes in the rulemaking process. The good news is that things are moving in the right direction to make student loan forgiveness easier and more accessible to borrowers.
The CFT Organizing Department has facilitated many student debt clinics for hundreds of our members over the last few years, resulting in many people getting the help and support they needed to get on the right path to PSLF. Through those clinics, we also identified several California members who worked with AFT on the advocacy and political work resulting in the overhaul of PSLF. They participated in a critical lawsuit against Navient (resulting in the company no longer servicing student loans due to their predatory practices), visited electeds, talked with reporters, and much more. This is a huge victory and CFT members helped make it happen!
Legislative update: Three out of four priority CFT bills signed by the governor into law
We are happy to report that Governor Newsom has signed three bills championed by CFT during the latest legislative session. First up, the governor signed AB 438 (Reyes, D-Grand Terrace), which matches the classified school employee layoff calendar to the layoff calendar for teachers. AB 438 is not only a matter of respect and equity for hard working and dedicated classified employees, it also compels school districts to make well-thought-out budgetary decisions, rather than guessing and potentially laying off classified employees at any time of the year.
Second, Governor Newsom signed CFT-sponsored AB 1550 (Rivas, Luz, D-Arleta), a priority bill for UC-AFT, the teaching faculty at the University of California. AB 1550 guarantees that UC-AFT faculty whose existing job classifications are added to the Academic Senate will have their bargaining rights protected.
Third, Governor Newsom signed SB 294 (Leyva, D-Chino), which removes the service credit limitation with CalSTRS during leaves of absence for labor union service.
Unfortunately Governor Newsom decided to veto AB 375 (Medina, D-Riverside), which would have formally increased the workload cap available to part-time faculty from 67% up to 85% of a full-time faculty workload in California’s community colleges. The veto came following intense pressure from the California Community Colleges chancellor’s office, which grossly overestimated that yearly costs would top $400 million. However, in his veto message the governor committed to working through the budget process to specifically address issues facing part-time faculty in next year's state budget.
