Teachers Sue U.S. Education Dept. For Mismanaging Loan-Forgiveness

“This is just a cruel joke on Teachers. We were promised something that was going to allow us to breathe freely,” city Teacher Kelly Finlaw said of the student-loan-forgiveness program enacted by Congress more than a decade ago that has so far provided relief to less than 1 percent of eligible public-sector workers.

She is one of eight public servants represented in a lawsuit that was filed in Federal court by the American Federation of Teachers against the U.S. Department of Education, as well as Education Secretary Betsy DeVos, for “grossly” mismanaging the Public Service Loan Forgiveness program, which was established in 2007 in order to attract people into teaching, firefighting and other municipal jobs by promising to forgive the balance on their Federal student loans after 10 years of payment.