Apply for Student Loan Debt Relief
By Albert B. Kelly
For most of my life, there was always a belief in this country that the next generation would do better than the one that came before it. I think about our parent’s and my grandparent’s generation slogging their way through the great depression, the second world war, segregation and civil rights with America emerging as a country that put on the mantle of world leadership.
Regardless of race or ethnicity, spoken and unspoken, was the belief and the assumption that if you worked hard and stayed after it, you could build something for yourself in this society and get ahead. The idea was to hand something down to your children and their children so that each successive generation would have it just a little bit better than the previous one.
The key to all of it, or so we were told, was education. Initially, education was about building a basic foundation of competency among all citizens. Education was at the heart of equality as well. From pre-school through grade 12, the idea was to equip people with the tools to function and participate in the life of the country.
But the real golden ticket was higher education. It wasn’t always that way. According to the National Center for Education Statistics, heading into the Second World War, only 8.4% of young people 18 to 24 years old enrolled in college. This is understandable as many went off to war.
But coming out the war things began to change so that in 1950, the percentage of 18-24 year-olds enrolled in college was up at 14.3%. That number jumped to 23.6% in 1960 and continued climbing to 35.8% in 1970, growing to 40.2% in 1980, and finally passing the fifty percent mark with 51.1% in 1990.
Much of what fueled the jump in college enrollment was access and affordability. For example, consider that up until the mid-1960s the City College system in New York was free and the same held true in California. And what wasn’t free was affordable. According to the National Center for Education Statistics, in 1970 the average in-state tuition and fees for one year at a public non-profit university was $394. Go figure.
But ever-increasing costs is largely why now, the number of young people 18-24 years-old attending college is trending down so that only 42% are enrolled and who can blame them. According to educationdata.org, the average cost of attendance for a student living on campus at a public 4-year in-state institution is $25,707 per year or $102,828 over 4 years. Out-of-state students will pay on average $43,421 per year or $173,684 over 4 years.
If you are like 96.6% of all those who earn a bachelor’s degree, you will likely earn it in six years, not four years and if you do, the price of your education will rise to approximately $213,306. Educationdata.org tells us that student borrowers pay an average of $2,186 in interest each year on their college debt and the average student borrower will spend roughly 20 years paying off their loans.
That’s why supporting the administration’s one-time federal student loan debt relief program (https://studentaid.gov ) is critical and the hope is that the courts will uphold this program. Right now, it’s on pause, but the administration is encouraging applications regardless. If eligible, you could get a full or partial discharge up $20,000.
The program won’t help those with private student loan debt. But if you have certain federal student loans including, William D. Ford Federal Direct Loan (Direct Loan) Program loans, Federal Family Education Loan (FFEL) Program loans, Federal Perkins Loan Program loans held by ED, or Defaulted loans (includes ED-held or commercially serviced Subsidized Stafford, Unsubsidized Stafford, parent PLUS, graduate PLUS; and Perkins loans held by ED) you should apply.
According to the website, consolidation loans are also eligible for relief so long as all of the underlying loans that were consolidated were ED-held loans and were disbursed on or before June 30, 2022.
Eligibility is also tied to tax filing status. If single and under $125k, married, filing separately under $125k, married filing jointly under $250,000, head of household under $250k, or qualifying widow(er) under $250k you should apply. You’ll need to meet the income criteria for either 2020 or 2021, but you don’t need to meet it for both years.
If education is the golden ticket, spending 20 years paying off student loan debt has to change.