The recent changes made to the Public Service Loan Forgiveness (PSLF) program will help thousands of public servants obtain loan forgiveness. I want to commend the Department of Education for putting these changes in places on a temporary basis until October 2022. However, I would like to draw your attention to one of the changes that has been applied only to a select group of public servants and not all public servants under PSLF.

• A recent change allows those military personnel to receive credit towards the 120 qualifying payments for the months their loans were on forbearance or deferment when they were on active duty. Only active-duty military public servants on PSLF are allowed this benefit.
 

• Why is the unfair? While I commend the public service of those in the military, all public servants under the PSLF program deserve the same benefit. By providing it only to active-duty military, the Department of Education has created different classes of public servants and decided that some public servants are more important than others. Among the public servants not given this benefit are frontline teachers, police officers, firefighters, and healthcare workers, many of whom have worked at low-paying public sector, nonprofit jobs, just to qualify for PSLF. If their (our) service is not equally valued, why go into public service?
 

• Why is this decision unjust and potentially illegal? Thedecision to grant only active-duty military credit for their months on forbearance/deferment discriminates against all other public servants and those working for qualifying non-profits on the PSLF program by not treating them equally.
 

• What are other issues with forbearance and deferment and PSLF?
 

Forbearance and deferment months should be counted as payment months towards the 120 qualifying payments. Why?

o Many borrowers were forced into forbearance and deferment by manipulative loan service providers (some now defunct) who stood to gain from placing loans on forbearance or deferment.
o When a borrower would say, “I can’t afford the monthly payment,” the loan servicer would not offer any payment options but would simply say the only option is forbearance or deferment; thus, forcing the borrower to choose this loan status.
o Borrowers on PSLF, because they work in the public sector or for other qualifying non-profits largely have significantly lower salaries and income, and thus could not afford high monthly payments.
o The formulas for calculating monthly payment amounts are cryptic and unknown, and do not consider cost of living; therefore, borrowers were left choose between a large payment (not given any options) and forbearance or deferment, while still working in low-paying public service jobs.
 

My ask is that the Department of Education amend the change to forbearance and deferment qualifying months to include ALLpublic servants on PSLF, not just active-duty military. We are better than this as a country. Please do not let division among our public servants be the norm. There is enough division in our country at now. Expanding this decision would provide healing and bring people together. You can readily fix this in short time and have forbearance and deferment months count for all. I ask for your assistance in this in making this change in the PSLF available to all public servants. This will make us a stronger country. We are all in this together.