A popular federal program that offers paying-off federal school loan balances may be soon canceled. If so, this would potentially leaving a large number of past and present students of active-duty officers with tons of debt they had hoped to be forgiven.
Former President George W. Bush rolled out the Public Service Loan Forgiveness program in 2007 to encourage people earning expensive college degrees to go to work for the United States federal government. Following ten years in public service jobs, including active-duty Army, Navy, Air Force or Marine service, along with making regular monthly federal loan payments, these borrowers could apply to the U.S. Department of Education to have their remaining federal school loan balances forgiven.
October was the first-month that these students could apply for such forgiveness. But the fiscal year 2018 budget places this program on the edge of cancellation.
If this occurs, untold thousands of military officers who accepted commissions expecting after a decade of military service, the unpaid balances of their federal school debt would be eliminated would not happen. For the federal government or the tax payers, this would save $12 billion over the next ten years.
At this time, approximately 6,800 military people are enrolled in this federal program.