Funding a college education can be difficult for students these days.
Funding a college education can be difficult for students these days.
Many students take on significant student loans to pay for their degrees. For those who go into the education field, lower salaries can make this debt seem impossible to crawl out from underneath. If this is you, student loan forgiveness for teachers may be an option you have not considered yet. Or – maybe you have thought about it but need a place to start looking for more information.
Whichever situation applies to you, here are five student loan forgiveness options for teachers.
This student loan forgiveness plan is specific to those employed as teachers. It may not cover the entirety of your student loan, but it could make a significant dent in what you owe and take some pressure off.
The Teacher Loan Forgiveness Program forgives up to either $5,000 or $17,500 of student loan debt after five years of teaching.
You could qualify if:
Federal Family Education Loans (FFELs) and unsubsidized loans qualify for this program. Consolidated loans may also qualify, depending on the type of loan or loans you were paying off before you consolidated them.
For more information on qualifications and the application process, visit the Teacher Loan Forgiveness page on the Federal Student Aid website.
Like the Teacher Loan Forgiveness Program, the Perkins Loan Teacher Cancellation Program is meant for teachers. However, this program is specific to Federal Perkins Loans. If at least one of the student loans you had to take out was a Perkins loan, this could be a good option to look into.
This program discharges up to 100% of Federal Perkins Loans for teachers employed by public or non-profit elementary and secondary school systems. Percentages differ and depend on the number of full academic years you have worked as a teacher.
You are eligible for this program if:
There are certain provisions under which teachers employed part-time, preschool and prekindergarten teachers, and teachers employed by private schools may also qualify.
More specific information about the Perkins Loan Teacher Cancellation Program and its eligibility requirements can be found here.
The Public Service Loan Forgiveness (PSLF) Program is the broadest student loan forgiveness program available for teachers in the United States.
The PSLF Program forgives a direct student loan’s remaining balance once 120 qualifying monthly payments have been made under one of the eligible payment plans.
According to the Federal Student Aid website, any income-driven repayment plan is eligible. Standard, graduated, extended, and alternative repayment plans are not.
You cannot use this program if you have a Perkins loan or an FFEL that has not been consolidated into a Direct Consolidated Loan. The PSLF program is for direct loans.
You can find more information about the PSLF program here.
In 2018, the United States Congress passed a temporary expansion of the PSLF program called the Temporary Expanded Public Service Loan Forgiveness Program.
This program works similarly to PSLF but has slightly expanded the eligible repayment plans from the original.
You are eligible for the TEPSLF program if:
Please note that the types of loans that qualify for TEPSLF are the same as for the PSLF program. Those loans are ineligible if you are repaying a Perkins loan, an FFEL loan, or a private loan. You will have to consolidate them into a Direct Consolidated loan.
Also, the application process for this program is longer and may be more complicated than the PSLF program. You can find out the specifics here.
In addition to the federal programs listed above, you may be able to take advantage of state or local student loan forgiveness programs in your area. The American Federation of Teachers (AFT) has a searchable database full of opportunities on its website. You can narrow down the search by:
Click here to access the AFT database.
Has this list been helpful for you? Are there any options we might have missed?