We must deliver on the promise of public service loan forgiveness program and cancel educators’ student loan debt

Educators are full of enthusiasm for introducing students to new ideas, firing up their curiosity to learn, and nurturing their brilliance. They make many sacrifices to accomplish this mission, from spending their “off” hours helping a student meet an academic challenge or overcome a personal crisis, to digging into their own pockets to buy supplies or stock their classrooms with snacks and clothing for students in need. When COVID-19 closed many school buildings, educators were resilient, and used their creativity, determination, and personal resources to fill in the gaps and to provide students with the basics—including the individual attention that helps students learn, grow, and thrive. 

Research recently released by the National Education Association (NEA) reveals another huge sacrifice by educators of all backgrounds and experience levels: the accumulation of a mountain of debt to pursue a profession that benefits us all.

In “Student Loan Debt among Educators: A National Crisis,” the NEA reveals that the 24 percent of educators with a current loan balance — including pre-kindergarten-through-high school teachers, higher education faculty, specialized instructional support personnel, and education support professionals — owe an average of $58,700 in student loans; 14 percent owe $105,000 or more in debt. 

In all, nearly 43 million Americans owe almost $1.6 trillion in outstanding federal student loan debt, an amount that is second only to home mortgage debt. The increase in debt has been driven by the rising cost of attending college: Costs increased by 31 percent between 2007 and 2017 at public colleges, and by 23 percent over the same period at private, non-profit colleges. 

Student loan debt is tough for anyone to cope with, but it is especially onerous for educators because they earn less than other professionals with similar levels of experience and education. In 2019-20, the average starting salary for educators was $41,163. This means that those with the greatest potential to be transformative educators may never get that chance because their student loan debt pressures them into more lucrative professions.

NEA’s research found that a whopping 65 percent of educators under the age of 35 have taken out student loans, compared to 27 percent of educators 61 and older. 

These young educators include second-grade teacher Maggie Gannon, of Culpeper, Va., who has nearly $200,000 in debt from undergraduate and graduate degrees. “Sometimes, when it’s crazy stressful, the debt is overwhelming,” she says.  

Yet, educators at the opposite end of the career spectrum are also affected. Four in 10 educators with at least 11 years of experience and more than a quarter of educators age 61 and older who took out student loans are still paying them off. How can you retire — let alone save for it — if you’re still paying off college loans 30 years into a profession that pays you less than similarly educated and experienced professionals?

The debt crisis is worse for educators of color, particularly African Americans.

Black families have significantly less wealth than White families due to generations of discriminatory practices in employment, pay, housing, and other areas. As a result, 56 percent of Black educators have taken out an average of $68,300 in student loans, compared to 44 percent of White educators, who have taken out an average of $54,300 in loans. 

One of these African American educators is James Stewart, a high school science teacher in Maryland. His first year of teaching was rewarding but challenging, and he yearned to become a better teacher. He ended up pursuing a doctorate degree. He now has student loan debt in the six figures. “I don’t have regrets about my career choice or my education, but I wish I had known more about what I was getting into,” says Stewart.

As unsettling as these stories are, we miss the point if we view them solely as tales of individual struggle and hardship. They represent our failure as a nation to do all we can to support education as a career choice. 

This failure affects whether outstanding educators stay in the profession or leave it, and whether students pursue careers as educators at all. It affects whether educators can devote themselves fully to their students or whether they have to take side jobs as rideshare drivers and grocery store cashiers. 

Ultimately, this failure affects students in schools and colleges across America, who will miss out on opportunities to be taught, nurtured, and supported by people who view education not just as a job but as a calling. 

The pandemic exacerbated what was already a difficult situation for many borrowers, notwithstanding the federal government’s emergency loan forbearance. These measures delay the eventual day of reckoning, but they don’t eliminate it. 

That is why we are calling on the Biden administration to cancel student loan debt for educators and public service workers who have served a decade or more, delivering on the promise of Public Service Loan Forgiveness (PSLF) program. PSLF was designed by the federal government to recognize and reward people who choose careers in public service. But 98 percent of the professionals who apply for PSLF are rejected, while many others never even apply because of confusing and conflicting information. One of us is currently leading a legislative push to improve the program so that public servants can receive the student loan forgiveness they have earned, and we hope to work with the administration to get it across the finish line. 

Loan forgiveness would save Maggie Gannon about $400 a month. It would allow her to consider buying a home one day, and it would keep her in the career she was meant for. “This is my passion,” she says. “I really don’t think there is anything else I was meant to be doing.” 

We need more teachers like Gannon, and loan forgiveness for public service workers will help to attract and retain them. The student loan debt they shoulder is a societal calamity that will only get worse if we keep ignoring it. We must act now to ensure a stable educator workforce that reflects our students’ diversity and enables those called to be educators to pursue and remain in the profession they love.

Tim Kaine is the junior senator from Virginia and Becky Pringle is president of the National Education Association.