Student Loan Forgiveness is Possible
Over 1 million educators and public service workers received $74 billion in student loan forgiveness through Public Service Loan Forgiveness (PSLF)
NO MATTER WHO WE ARE OR HOW BIG OUR BANK ACCOUNTS, WE SHOULD BE ABLE TO LEARN WITHOUT LIMITS.
The July 2021 “Student Loan Debt Among Educators: A National Crisis” report presents the results of a 2020 NEA survey of educators working in pre-K–12 and higher education institutions. This research shows how student debt affects educators—financially and emotionally—and includes specific data for educators of different ages and races.
STUDENT LOAN DEBT AMONG EDUCATORS: BY THE NUMBERS
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STUDENT LOAN DATA BASED ON EDUCATOR GROUP
While student loans play a significant role in the financial lives of many educators, they have disproportionate impacts on certain types of education employees. Click on the links below to dive deeper into the impact of the crisis on specific educator groups.
Pre-K–12 Teachers and Specialized Instructional Support Personnel (SISP)
A majority (83%) of pre-K–12 teachers and SISP with student loans reported that this debt has had at least one negative financial or emotional impact.
Pre-K–12 Educator Support Professionals (ESPs)
Almost one-third (29%) of pre-K–12 ESPs took out student loans to help pay for their own education.
Higher Education Faculty
Almost half (46%) of the 48 percent of higher education faculty who borrowed for college still have a balance, which means that 22 percent of all higher education faculty are currently saddled with student loan debt.
Higher Education ESPs
More than half of higher education ESPs with unpaid loans had difficulty building up emergency savings or saving for retirement because of their student loans.
Navigate your student debt
NEA’s student debt experts have created tools designed to help educators through the complicated student debt system.
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