[Oasfaa] The problems with PSLF

[Schmerer, Mendy M. (HSC)]

In my opinion, it doesn't matter your political affiliation and whether you personally agree with the tenants of what Public Service Loan Forgiveness was created to do.  It is a piece of legislation that became a promise to borrowers, that as long as they followed some rules (that I think we could all see had the potential to be confusing to implement and monitor from day 1) about repayment and employment, then the federal government would show its appreciation, if you will, for their work in those public service jobs by forgiving a portion of their loans. The last 10 years of repayment has been mishandled by ED and by the servicer to the point that it borders on fraud. When students borrow loans, they become consumers, and as consumers believing in the possibility of what PSLF could offer to their futures, they were misdirected at nearly every turn, leaving them with the gut-punch of no forgiveness.

I usually try to avoid broad brushstrokes for pronouns with "they" this and that, but when 29,000 applications were submitted for PSLF and only 96 were approved, that's not a small cohort of students who simply didn't follow the rules. That's an administrative failure on the part of ED, and couple that with all the other deficiencies we've been seeing and dealing with over the years, ED needs to be held accountable. Unfortunately, accountability seems to be in terribly short supply these days.

Pam McConahay, thank you for pointing out this article<https://www.npr.org/2018/10/17/653853227/the-student-loan-whistleblower>. It's worth the read if you hadn't seen it elsewhere.

Rant (temporarily) over. Thanks!

Mendy Schmerer, M.Ed.
Director, Office of Student Financial Aid
University of Oklahoma Health Sciences Center
1106 N. Stonewall, Rm 301
Oklahoma City, OK  73117
(405) 271-2118, x 48817 (p)
(405) 271-5446 (f)
Mendy-Schmerer at ouhsc.edu<mailto:Mendy-Schmerer at ouhsc.edu>
http://www.ouhsc.edu/financialservices/SFA/

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