According to a 2023 report, nearly 800,000 Washington residents hold outstanding federal student loans, totaling approximately $28 billion.
Cortney Marabetta, communications specialist with the Washington chapter of the American Federation of Teachers, which filed a class-action lawsuit against the Education Department, argued the freeze was unlawful and unfair.
"We have managed to finally put enough pressure on the Trump administration that they have been forced to do something that is a benefit to working Americans," she claimed. "It is literally life-changing to qualify."
The program allows borrowers working in public service, such as education or nonprofits, to have their remaining loan balances canceled after 20 or 25 years of qualifying payments. Marabetta added that this ruling only applies to borrowers under the IBR program. Other income-driven repayment plans such as SAVE or ICR are still facing delays or legal barriers tied to court rulings.
Marabetta said many AFT members end up owing much more than they originally borrowed for school despite making regular payments. She cites one example of a teacher who left grad school owing about $35,000 for her master's in education, and after years of making payments, owed nearly double that.
"The servicers have pushed people into more expensive pathways for repayment as they have benefited from people paying more over time," she explained.
Marabetta says AFT has many members in Washington who struggle to live in the communities that they teach in, particularly for contingent faculty.
"We have members who spend more time commuting than they can with students because that's simply the physical reality of working at two or three or more jobs in order to get by," she contended.
Adjunct faculty can qualify for loan forgiveness through a national policy known as the Adjunct Multiplier, Marabetta explained, which allows them to multiply their in-class instruction hours by more than three and a third.
