Mar. 19 at 1:15 PM
$SLM $SOFI $NAVI
AFT sues U.S. Department of Education for 'breaking' student loan system
On Tuesday night, the 1.8 million-member AFT sued the United States Department of Education for effectively breaking the student loan system, denying borrowers' access to affordable loan payments and blocking progress towards Public Service Loan Forgiveness, in violation of federal law. The AFT said: "Three weeks ago, federal education officials eliminated access to income-driven repayment plans-student loan repayment options that give millions of people the right to make loan payments they can afford-by removing the application form from ED's website and secretly ordering student loan servicers to halt all processing.
In addition to providing millions of borrowers with the ability to tie their monthly payment to their income and family size, IDR plans are the only way for public service workers to benefit from PSLF-a critical lifeline for teachers, nurses, first responders, and millions of other public service workers across the country." "By effectively freezing the nation's student loan system, the new administration seems intent on making life harder for working people, including for millions of borrowers who have taken on student debt so they can go to college," said AFT President Randi Weingarten.
"The former president tried to fix the system for 45 million Americans, but the new president is breaking it again. The new lawsuit, AFT v. U.S. Department of Education, was filed in federal court in Washington, D.C. and seeks a court order to restore borrowers' access to IDR and PSLF. The AFT is represented by the Student Borrower Protection Center and Berger Montague PC. Publicly traded companies that may be impacted by the news include SLM (SLM), Navient (NAVI), and SoFi (SOFI).
