The White House has taken aim at higher education, withholding federal funding from institutions that won’t bend to its political pressure tactics. At the same time, the Trump Administration is sabotaging student debt relief, denying access to tools aimed at college access and affordability for those who might benefit most. Members of AFT Connecticut-affiliated unions have refused to sit on the sidelines, demanding justice for themselves and all those seeking a fair shot at the American Dream.
Among the most troubling changes since January are the limits placed on income-driven repayment (IDR) plans, which were aimed at adjusting student borrowers’ monthly payments according to their incomes. The Saving on a Valuable Education (SAVE) Plan launched two years ago cut monthly loan repayments tied to IDR in half. The new administration cruelly eliminated the program, driving borrowers’ costs back up.
In February, the White House ordered its federal Department of Education (DOE) to block online access to IDR applications and direct loan servicers to stop processing them. Our national union joined advocates in taking the agency to court on behalf of impacted members across the country.
Corey Mason (left, in photo, above) and Rachel Dubreuil (right) were two of them.
In our national union’s court filing, they shared how previous legal maneuvers intended to undermine student debt relief had already put their families’ finances in jeopardy.
Both Mason and Dubreuil, members of our State Vocational Federation of Teachers, were enrolled in both the SAVE plan and the Public Service Loan Forgiveness (PSLF) program. PSLF was established in 2007 to allow educators, first responders, caregivers and other public employees to cancel any remaining student debt after making 10 years’ worth of payments.
The Trump Administration has yet to announce direct changes to PSLF, despite being directly targeted for elimination in his political benefactors’ “Project 2025” policy agendas. Still, relief has been effectively blocked without access to IDR.
“What am I going to do if I can’t have an income-driven repayment?” asked Dubreuil. “What am I going to do if Public Service Loan Forgiveness goes away?”
“By effectively freezing the nation’s student loan system, the new administration seems intent on making life harder for working people,” AFT national president, Randi Weingarten, said when the suit was filed. “(We have) fought tirelessly to make college more affordable by limiting student debt for public service workers and countless others – that’s now in jeopardy because of this illegal and immoral decision.”
Six weeks later, viewers across the country tuned in to CBS Mornings heard Dubreuil and Mason tell their stories in a segment on the legal limbo facing millions of borrowers.
“Every extra penny I feel like I had went towards this debt,” said Mason. “We’ve been working so hard toward finally being able to say, ‘okay – this debt is done.'”
Our national union’s action in the courts moved the DOE to agree to restore online IDR access for borrowers and resume the application process. Still, the agency has made little progress on relief for the vast majority whose loan repayments have been caught in the backlog.
Still, the damage has already been done. With SAVE eliminated and IDR failing to keep up, millions of working people are panicking over how they will pay off their loans. Under SAVE, payments were set at five percent of the borrower’s income; without it, they will double or even triple.
Our union’s national, state and local leadership had made real progress over the past decade in moving the needle to reform a predatory student loan system. From hosting clinics for individual members to holding bad loan servicer actors accountable, together we’ve helped free more than one million working people from the shackles of debt.
“Realizing that being in a union could help us with our debt situation meant we finally felt like there was hope,” said Mason.
The policies of the new administration in the White House demand bold action to preserve those past gains, prevent a slide backward and keep the hope that Mason described alive. Borrowers have had both Social Security and tax refunds garnished to collect outstanding student debt and now face similar threats to their paychecks.
The harm goes beyond the White House’s orders undercutting student debt relief. The administration’s allies in Congress have also proposed slashing billions in college affordability support service funds, such as Pell grants and graduate PLUS loans.
“Individually we don’t have the resources to take the federal government on, but collectively we really are union strong and we can do this,” added Dubreuil.
Editor’s note: contributions from Virginia Myers, AFT.
