Navigating Student Loan Forgiveness for Professors

Having student debt as a professor can be burdensome, and it is natural to want to repay your student loans as soon as possible. If you are a professor with student debt you want to get off your shoulders, student loan forgiveness for college professors might just be what you are looking for. This article explores various student loan forgiveness options available to professors, providing a comprehensive guide to help navigate the complexities of repayment and potential debt relief.

Understanding the Landscape of Teacher Debt

Recruiting and retaining a well-prepared, stable, and diverse teacher workforce is a critical endeavor to advance student learning and development. Efforts to build a well-prepared, stable, and diverse teacher workforce can face many challenges; these include lower compensation than comparable college-degree careers and high costs of credentialing. In 2023, teachers’ average salaries were 26.6% lower than salaries for other college graduates. When student loan repayments are layered on top of lower salaries, they further reduce teachers’ income that can go toward living costs, family expenses, or saving. For some teacher candidates, the prospect of accumulating student loans could deter them from pursuing high-quality comprehensive preservice preparation; these programs may take longer to complete and thus typically cost more than shorter and often less-rigorous programs that bypass extensive clinical practice and integrated coursework. For other potential candidates, student loan debt may dissuade them from pursuing teaching as a career altogether.

More than 6 in 10 teachers have taken out student loans to support their education, and close to 4 in 10 are still repaying them. Student loan borrowing and repayment rates are highest among beginning teachers, special education teachers, and Black teachers. These loans require many teachers to take second jobs and result in high levels of loan-related stress. Student loan burdens may contribute to teacher shortages and influence the workforce composition: They can disincentivize entry into the profession, dissuade teachers from seeking additional certification, or affect teachers’ decisions to stay.

The landscape for student loan borrowers has continuously shifted over the last several years. These shifts included the student loan payment moratorium established in response to the pandemic and an October 2024 ending of protections that shielded borrowers from the harshest consequences when missing payments, among others. Altogether, these changes have resurfaced the need for policy action to address student loan debt and the impacts the debt can have on the teaching profession. The strains arising from student loans could pose additional challenges for teachers as well as for policymakers and school leaders who want to support a highly qualified, stable, and diverse teaching workforce.

About 60% of teachers borrowed for their education, representing about 2.1 million teachers. This included 55.5% of teachers with a bachelor’s degree and 63.2% of teachers with a master’s degree. About 37% of all teachers, or about 1.3 million teachers, are still repaying their student loans. Nearly one third of these teachers-totaling more than 400,000-still owe their full balance. The portion of teachers who carry loan balances decreases as teachers have more years of teaching experience. Still, a sizeable portion of teachers carry loan debt well into their careers. For example, close to 3 of every 10 teachers with 16-20 years of experience are still repaying some or all of their loans. This is despite the fact that these teachers can typically benefit from the Teacher Loan Forgiveness program (up to $17,500 in forgiveness after 5 years of consecutive service) or the Public Service Loan Forgiveness program (full forgiveness after 10 years of service) with that level of experience.

Student loan borrowing is especially acute for newer teachers: Around 65% of teachers in their first 10 years of teaching have ever taken out loans, compared to about 41% of teachers with more than 30 years of experience. Special education teachers, compared to teachers of other subject areas, are most likely to have ever taken out student loans (65.2%) and to owe their entire balance (15.4%). Generally, special education teachers obtain a master’s degree, advanced certificates, or additional training for specializations after they earn their bachelor’s degree and licensure. Relative to other racial and ethnic groups studied, Black teachers borrow and owe on their student loans at the highest rates, with about 71% of Black teachers having ever taken out student loans and almost 60% of all Black teachers still in repayment. Moreover, 31.4% of all Black teachers still owe their entire balance-close to 3 times larger than the share of all teachers who owe their full balance (11.5%). These disparities hold true for teachers with more years of experience, as well as across levels of educational attainment.

More than one third of teachers who borrowed for their education work multiple jobs because of their student loan debt. This represents about 22.1% of all teachers. Most teachers with outstanding student loans-about 6 in 10-report high or very high levels of stress due to their student loan debt. This represents about 22.4% of all teachers.

Federal Loan Forgiveness Programs for Professors

If you have federal student loans and work as a teacher, you may be eligible for several loan forgiveness options.

Public Service Loan Forgiveness (PSLF)

PSLF is another program you can opt for if you are looking for student loan forgiveness for college professors. PSLF allows qualifying federal student loans to be forgiven after 120 qualifying payments for people working in public service, like many teachers. This program is specifically designed for public employees or non-profit workers. The institution that you are working for as a professor will determine whether you will be able to apply for PSLF. You need to work for a government organization or a 501(c)(3) non-profit institution.

There are a few requirements you will need to meet in order to qualify for PSLF:

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You need to work for a government organization.
If you do not work for a government organization, you will need to work for a 501(c)(3) non-profit institution.
Do not be alarmed if you are a professor on a limited-term contract. You will still be able to meet the 30-hour requirement if you give a few lectures and also work part-time at another employer that is qualified.

To examine how to use PSLF as a university professor, researcher, or college administrator, we’ll look at a variety of examples for federal borrowers. Hundreds of thousands of college faculty members could benefit from the PSLF program. Many college faculty and staff fail to consolidate their loans and get them onto the PAYE or REPAYE plans during their low-income years, costing themselves thousands of dollars.

Whether you go into teaching, research, or administration, you will eventually earn wages that no longer classify as poverty level. In most cases, if you built up years of credit to use PSLF while in grad school, you should be able to get a significant chunk of debt relief regardless of what your income ends up being.

Even though Rachel Chu makes twice as much money as she owes as an economics professor, she still receives a substantial college professor loan forgiveness benefit. The difference between refinancing and loan forgiveness is significant.

Adjunct faculty would only be able to qualify for PSLF if they could be considered full-time. The one loophole that exists for part-time university employees is that you can piece together multiple part-time jobs to reach 30 hours a week at nonprofit employers to qualify, too. Some adjunct professors might need to try to qualify through this back door.

Your annual employment certification covers you for 12 months, including summers. Sabbaticals and research leaves typically don’t affect PSLF eligibility if your employer still considers you a full-time employee during that time. Paid sabbaticals usually count towards PSLF. For unpaid leaves, check with your institution about your employment status. Yes, if you teach part-time at multiple eligible institutions, you can combine your hours to meet the 30-hour per week requirement. If you were denied PSLF in the past, you may now be eligible under the expanded rules. You can change employers without losing PSLF progress.

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Teacher Loan Forgiveness (TLF) Program

Highly-qualified teachers in certain low-income schools may be eligible for a different loan forgiveness program, called the Teacher Loan Forgiveness (TLF) Program, that provides $5,000 in loan forgiveness after the completion of five consecutive academic years as an elementary or secondary school teacher. Highly qualified math, science, or special education teachers may be eligible for up to $17,500 in loan forgiveness after the completion of five academic years as a teacher in an eligible school.

You can potentially receive forgiveness under both TLF and PSLF but not for the same period of teaching service .Additionally, if you have a Federal Perkins loan the program has a cancellation option for teachers.For borrowers with high student loan debt, it may still make sense to pursue Public Service Loan Forgiveness, which does not have a debt limit for forgiveness.

Faculty Loan Repayment Program (FLRP)

No, there are no student loan forgiveness programs exclusively for all college professors. But the Faculty Loan Repayment Program (FLRP) assists professors at health profession schools, offering up to $40,000 for two years of service. The FLRP, offered by the HRSA (Health Resources & Service Administration), is a student loan forgiveness program specifically aimed at college professors working at health profession schools or medical schools. This repayment program focuses specifically on professors and is in addition to the normal student PSLF (Public Service Loan Forgiveness) that professors can get for their student loans. This repayment program can help with the repayment of up to $40,000 of student loan debt for the maximum of two years of teaching. In addition to applying for the program, there are requirements that you need to meet before you can qualify for the FLRP.

Additional Strategies for Managing Student Debt

There are other alternatives besides student loan forgiveness for professors that you can use to ease the burden of student debt.

Refinancing Student Loans

Refinancing your student loans as a professor might be a great idea. Consolidating and refinancing enables you to get lower interest rates on your existing debt or to shorten the term of your loan, which will mean that you will be able to pay off your debt quicker. If you shorten your loan term, keep in mind you will need to make larger monthly payments. The number one benefit you will get when you use refinancing will be the potential lower interest rate that you will be paying. This means the cost of your debt is less and you will, in total, pay less. It is, however, important for you to take note that when you choose to refinance federal loans, you will give up a lot of protections that comes along with having federal loans.

Income-Driven Repayment (IDR) Plans

Now that you understand loan forgiveness and refinancing, another alternative you can consider is income-based repayment options. IDR (Income-driven repayment) is aimed at lowering your monthly payment to match the income that you make and your living expenses. There are some IDR plans that offer additional student loan forgiveness for college professors, but only after you have made payments for about 20-25 years.

The REPAYE plan covers half of the interest that your required payment does not cover. That means your annual interest on the REPAYE plan in this example would be less per year if you used forbearance or deferment. Keep in mind that the REPAYE plan has no cap on payments. You might need to use the Pay As You Earn (PAYE) plan instead so you can benefit from the max payment of the Standard 10-year plan. Your takeaway should be that if you can consolidate your loans and get them onto the PAYE or REPAYE plans while you’re making a low income, you should absolutely do this.

Federal student loans can always be paid on an income-driven program.

Smart Financial Habits

Educate yourself about your personal finance. There are a lot of things you can do to manage your student debt better.

Choosing the correct repayment plan is essential to the successful repayment of your student loans as a professor. Choosing a repayment plan with the lowest monthly payment may be a good choice for you if your cash flow is tight. This will, however, mean you end up paying off your debt longer, which means you pay more interest in the long run. When deciding on a repayment plan, don’t be blind to the other factors and terms and conditions that come with the plans.
Refinancing might not always be your best option. Refinancing your student loan might be advantageous to some and disadvantageous to others. Sometimes professors jump to refinancing as soon as they get a stable income from a permanent position at work.
You can make a deduction of up to $2,500 of interest on your federal and private student loans from your annual tax return. This is a great yearly cost saving bonus.
There are several lenders who will reward you for setting up auto-payments. So what is auto-pay? In a nutshell, auto-pay is when you give your loan provider permission to deduct your monthly payment directly from your bank account on a monthly basis. Your bank account will, therefore, be linked to your loan. A decrease of up to 0.5% might not seem like a lot at first, but all of these small amounts add up to make great cost savings.
If you decide you will be making use of student loan forgiveness for professors, you will have to remember to send the certification every year. You will need to fill out a portion of your form and your employer will also be obliged to fill in a part. Your qualifying payments will be updated yearly as you certify.

Policy Recommendations to Support Teachers

In order to build and maintain a well-prepared, stable, and diverse teacher workforce, it is important to reduce the barriers related to entering and staying in the profession. The consequences of student loan borrowing and repayment could contribute to already challenging working conditions in the profession, which in turn can influence attrition and teacher shortages. Reducing debt burdens could influence who enters and stays in the profession, their preparation experiences, and their stress levels and satisfaction while teaching.

There are multiple policy approaches that could reduce student loan debt and the barriers it poses for prospective and current teachers. Department of Education, the federal government is in a particularly strong position to directly address teachers’ loan-induced financial strains. Accordingly, the recommendations primarily focus on federal levers, many of which can be supported with state and local action.

Expand Service Scholarship and Loan Forgiveness Programs

Service scholarship and loan forgiveness programs provide financial support to teachers in return for a service commitment (e.g., working in a high-need school for a certain number of years). Service scholarships provide upfront aid that reduces or eliminates the need to borrow, while loan forgiveness programs cancel accrued loan debt. Both programs aid in teacher recruitment and retention when they meaningfully offset the cost of a teacher’s preparation, are well-designed, and are administered competently.

Increase Service Scholarships Award Amounts and Improve the Programs’ Administration

Federally, the TEACH grant offers up to $4,000 per year in grant aid to postsecondary students who commit to teaching a high-need subject for 4 years in a school that serves students from low-income backgrounds. However, this grant amount has not increased since its initial authorization in 2007, despite the increasing costs of preparation and credentialing. The grant can also convert to a loan with backdated interest if teachers do not complete the 4-year service commitment.

Make Federal Student Loan Payments for Teachers Until They Are Eligible for Forgiveness

Federal loan forgiveness programs for teachers, primarily the Teacher Loan Forgiveness (TLF) and Public Service Loan Forgiveness (PSLF) programs, relieve some or all of teachers’ outstanding student loan balances after the fulfillment of a service requirement. However, these programs require teachers to shoulder monthly payments for years with salaries that are lower than those of similarly educated professionals, especially in the first few years of teaching. The federal government could make the monthly student loan payments on behalf of public school teachers while they are teaching and ensure the debt is retired after 10 years of service-an incentive for both recruitment and retention.

In addition to federal programs, multiple states offer educator loan repayment programs in which the state directly pays teachers’ student loan providers, as well as state-specific service scholarships to support teacher candidates.

Expand the Affordability and Availability of High-Retention Preparation Pathways

Some high-retention pathways into teaching, such as residency programs and some Grow Your Own programs, offer high-quality preparation along with financial support. These types of programs often underwrite all or most of the cost of teacher preparation and provide stipends in exchange for a service commitment. Some residency programs also subsidize the costs of tuition, lowering the overall costs for candidates. These financial supports can reduce or eliminate the need to borrow.

Increase Funding for Programs That Support High-Retention Pathways

At the federal level, programs that fund high-retention pathways into teaching, including the Teacher Quality Partnership, Individuals with Disabilities Education Act (IDEA) Part D Personnel Preparation, and Augustus F. Hawkins Center of Excellence programs, have been chronically underfunded.

Increase Teachers’ Total Compensation to Bolster Teachers’ Capacity to Repay Their Student Loans

Outstanding student loan debt is relatively more burdensome for teachers than for other college graduates because teacher salaries are relatively lower.

Raise Teachers’ Salaries

Raising teachers’ total compensation would reduce the financial strains teachers experience, not only from student loan repayment obligations but also from other expenses such as housing and child care costs. State and local education agency actions to raise and equalize salaries can help increase teachers’ ability to contribute toward their student loan repayments, savings, or other expenses. For example, some states-including Maryland, New Mexico, and Tennessee-have enacted salary equalizations and raises through legislation.

Bolster Teachers’ Net Compensation Through Tax Credits and Housing Subsidies

These non-salary supports can also increase teachers’ total compensation. A federal and/or state refundable tax credit for educators could be designed to incentivize service in high-need areas, where there are fewer state and local resources than in wealthier areas and salaries are lower. In addition, policymakers in federal, state, and local governments could provide housing support and other subsidies to educators, especially in areas where housing options are limited or expensive, further straining teachers’ lower salaries. The federal government could make existing housing subsidies more readily available and offer additional housing supports through down payment assistance, low- or no-interest home loans, or support for governmental entities to build or purchase affordable housing for teachers.

Incentivize and Underwrite the Costs of Earning High-Need, Advanced Credentials

Which may help avoid additional debt, improve compensation, and enhance teacher satisfaction and retention.

Underwrite Coursework and Certification Costs to Help Teachers Earn High-Need Credentials

These investments, which can be made by federal, state, or local governments, not only lift the burden of additional financial strain from individual teachers but also allow schools to build on the expertise of current teachers, both of which serve as effective retention strategies.

Provide Support for Advanced Credentials, Such as National Board Certification

States and districts can provide financial incentives to train and support teachers to become National Board certified by underwriting certification costs. Teachers who are National Board certified have been found to be highly effective as teachers, mentors, and colleagues, raising both the level of practice and student outcomes.

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