[Publib] Student loan forgiveness

[Michelle Swain]

Just went online to do a little research.  Yes, public and school librarians are eligible for loan forgiveness after 10 years starting with payments made in October 2007, BUT you have to be on a standard payment plan or an income contingent payment plan, not graduated or extended.

I went to school for so long and finished my doctorate, so I have $42,000 in loans consolidated through the Direct Loan program with a fixed interest rate.  Consolidating through them is easy, and gives you one place to contact for all your loan information.  

If this new forgiveness program is real, I will be able to stay at a job I love for the next 10 years and knock off nine years of student loan payments.  I just changed my payment plan from extended to standard and my payment went down four dollars a month.  Yes, ten years is a long time to wait and it would have been nice to count the six years I have already been making payments but I am just happy to see some relief down the road AND that someone was on the ball enough to include librarians in the legislation itself.

If you have a hefty amount of student loans you should look into this.  You can re-consolidate existing consolidated loans into the Direct Loan program starting July 2008 and qualify.

Michelle
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Michelle R. Swain, MSLIS, PhD
Library Director
Arkansas City Public Library
120 E. 5th Avenue
Arkansas City, KS 67005-2604
620-442-1280, FAX 620-442-4277
MOBILE 620-506-8576
http://www.acpl.org