An update on student loans from our Degrees, Not Debt team
An update on student loans from our Degrees, Not Debt team
by Andrea Cecconi, Emily Mateo, Linda Pfielsticker and Vanessa Pulkrabek
For the past four years, we’ve kept a spreadsheet updated with critical data as part of our work. Inside Education Minnesota, there is nothing special about a spreadsheet; we have hundreds of them tracking school finance information, legislative projections, student and staff data and more. But this one is special. This spreadsheet contains data from Education Minnesota members sharing the amount of loan forgiveness they earned from 2021 until 2025.
As of January 2025, we tracked $5.1 million in student loan debt that was erased from hard-working public education workers through Public Service Loan Forgiveness (PSLF) in the four years of the Biden- Harris administration.
That number hasn’t changed much since this January. Of the many crises triggered by the Trump Administration’s USDOE staff cuts, the student loan crisis is one that Education Minnesota members felt immediately. We have already seen the negative impacts of barriers to income-driven repayment (IDR), removal of access to loan consolidation and the looming threat of default and wage garnishment for those struggling to pay their loans.
As stated in the previous article, the DOE office that took the largest hit from buyouts and layoffs was Federal Student Aid, responsible for coordinating the US government student loan operation—from initial borrowing to repayment to loan forgiveness and ombudsman support.
Education Minnesota members should be able to count on stable options to repay their loans and access the two programs for loan forgiveness that Congress passed into law. With the changes to DOE, that has not been the case. A few of the crises that borrowers have experienced since January:
Elimination of the SAVE plan
In 2024, nine Republican attorneys general sued USDOE over the launch of an affordable loan repayment plan. The SAVE plan is the most recent income-driven repayment plan created by Congress or the DOE, but IDR plans have been around for decades. In their lawsuit, the GOP AGs argued that the plan is too generous to borrowers and that the Department of Education lacks authority to create a plan with payments this low.
For months, borrowers have been on hold in forbearances that were required while courts ruled. In February 2025, the new administration indicated that they would not continue to defend the affordable SAVE plan. The Degrees, Not Debt has gotten hundreds of calls and messages from borrowers attempting to repay their loans who have been stuck in limbo.
IDR plan application and changes
In February 2025, the DOE eliminated access to all IDR plans by removing the application from their website and secretly ordering student loan servicers to halt all IDR application processing. Borrowers in SAVE, those attempting to change plans or those wishing to enroll for the first time have functionally been in limbo for months. Paying loans via an income-driven plan is also a requirement for those pursuing Public Service Loan Forgiveness. Without access to the IDR application, thousands of Education Minnesota members pursuing PSLF have been in limbo.
Consolidation application
At the same time IDR plan applications became unavailable, the online loan consolidation application was taken down by the new administration. Consolidation is a critical tool for borrowers needing to combine student debt, especially in pursuit of PSLF or to get out of default.
Resumption of wage garnishment for borrowers in default
The Trump Administration announced on April 21 that borrowers in default will have their loans referred to debt collection. Around 5.3 million borrowers are in default nationwide, and these borrowers’ wages could be subject to garnishment. While borrowers can exit default via rehabilitation or consolidation of loans, the processes for doing this would be supported by staff who have been fired or laid off from the Department of Education.
Taken in isolation, each of these challenges is a lot for working people to deal with in an already confusing landscape. Taken together, these challenges represent a crisis for individuals and families when it comes to their budgets, their prospects for loan forgiveness and their long-term economic well-being.
Student loans are a necessity for virtually all educators who work in public schools. The investment that Education Minnesota members make in their own education benefits the students in our public schools and ultimately the whole state. Repaying that debt and earning the loan forgiveness to which they are legally entitled should not be impossible and USDOE should not be the barrier to either. As the challenges within our student loan system play out in the near future, our union will keep fighting to ensure that our members get the help and support to which they are entitled from their union, if not their federal government.
As a union, we work to pursue economic justice for members. This includes training, individual case work and large-scale advocacy. For student loan borrowers, this includes:
- Lawsuits: Education Minnesota members have joined our two national affiliates, the American Federation of Teachers and the National Education Association, in lawsuits about the cuts to the Department of So far, AFT’s lawsuit resulted in the restoration of three IDR plans that the Trump administration cut and resumption of online access to the IDR and consolidation application. Borrowers who have not been able to access support from FSA staff are working with NEA to share their stories.
- Training and communication: As we learn more about the landscape for borrowers, we continue to share updates via email, social media and both in-person and online Degrees Not Debt training. We encourage folks to reach out to request training and to take our class via MEA Online!
- Casework: Members with questions about their loans—how to repay them, what options exist for loan forgiveness or how to navigate misinformation from loan servicers— have Emails to DND@edmn.org are assigned to one of the four staff members on our team and we will work with our members to answer their questions, create plans for loan forgiveness and get help with thornier challenges like exiting default.
