Teacher unions sue to protect student loan forgiveness

By Esther Wickham
The Center Square

A coalition of teacher unions and nonprofits sued the U.S. Department of Education this week over its new rule limiting Public Service Loan Forgiveness for government and nonprofit workers.

On Friday, the Department of Education issued a rule that threatened to remove eligibility for student loan forgiveness to anyone who works for someone with “a substantial illegal purpose.”

The coalition filed the lawsuit seeking to get the U.S. District Court in Massachusetts to reverse the rule.

“The proposed rule would have a chilling effect on employers’ ability to recruit and retain qualified staff working in critical fields and with rural and other marginalized communities,” the lawsuit claimed.

Leaders of the organizations and the teachers’ union stated that the actions by the Trump administration are un-American.

“Trump wants to change that by imposing an ideological litmus test on millions of public servants and their employers that’s antithetical to American values and contrary to the statute at hand,” said American Federation of Teachers President Randi Weingarten. “It’s an illegal attack on those who placed their faith in PSLF’s bipartisan promise, only to see it cruelly ripped away. It will … drain talent from desperately needed jobs helping vulnerable communities, and saddle remaining workers with an insurmountable debt load.”

Becky Pringle, the president of the National Education Association, said in a statement that the Department of Education’s new rule “imposes harsh and illegal restrictions, makes repayment less affordable, and silences the voices of educators and other beneficiaries of the programs.”

“We refuse to stand by while politicians trap dedicated educators in generations of debt,” Pringle added.

The Center Square reported that Democratic attorney generals from 22 jurisdictions also sued the Department of Education over the new rule. California, Massachusetts, Colorado and New York are the states leading the coalition.

On Monday, The Center Square reported a response from the Department of Education to this pushback on the new PSLF rule.

“It is unconscionable that the plaintiffs are standing up for criminal activity,” Under Secretary of Education Nicholas Kent told The Center Square in an email. “This is a commonsense reform that will stop taxpayer dollars from subsidizing organizations involved in terrorism, child trafficking, and transgender procedures that are doing irreversible harm to children. The final rule is crystal clear: the Department will enforce it neutrally, without consideration of the employer’s mission, ideology or the population they serve.”

The PSLF program was passed in 2007 with bipartisan support as part of the College Cost Reduction and Access Act. Under the law signed by President George W. Bush, workers are entitled to forgiveness for the remaining balance of their loans if they dedicate 10 years to government or nonprofit work and stay up to date with their payments.

The lawsuit includes the National Council of Nonprofits; the cities of Boston, Albuquerque and Chicago; the city and county of San Francisco; Santa Clara County; Amica Center for Immigrant Rights; Coalition for Humane Immigrant Rights; Legal Aid Society of the District of Columbia; Oasis Legal Services; American Federation of Teachers; American Federation of State, County and Municipal Employees; National Education Association and National Association of Social Workers.