John,

On Thursday, May 8, at 6 p.m. EDT, join me, along with Mike Pierce, executive director of the Student Borrower Protection Center, AFT members and a special guest for an AFT student debt webinar: After months of economic uncertainty, hear from experts about how to navigate the student loan system and the fight for affordable repayment plans and access to Public Service Loan Forgiveness.

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For more than a decade, the AFT has been fighting to fix the broken student debt system and stop loan servicers from preying on our members. After hosting dozens of debt clinics, and reaching major settlements with Navient and the Department of Education, we have seen more than 1 million teachers, police officers, firefighters and healthcare workers get the life-changing promise of Public Service Loan Forgiveness. Teachers and nurses who put their lives on hold are buying homes, starting families and sending their own kids to college.

To learn more, click here.

This is union work, and the AFT will not stop until every public employee has access to affordable payment plans that count toward PSLF and all young people have affordable paths to opportunity. In July, when it became clear that loan servicer giant MOHELA cared more about profits than people’s economic future, the AFT filed a lawsuit. Last month, when we saw that the Trump administration had taken the application for the only affordable plan, Income Driven Repayment, off the Financial Student Aid website, we went straight to court. Within weeks, the application was back online, and FSA promised to begin processing applications this week.

But the fight continues. The proposed reconciliation bill, which is making its way through Congress right now, takes a hatchet to American opportunity by slashing $330 billion in college affordability. The AFT is fighting to ensure kids don’t lose the opportunity of middle-class, working-class and impoverished Americans to go to college so that billionaires can get tax cuts.

Join us for this webinar to learn more about what the union is doing to advocate for better repayment plans, more loan forgiveness and accountability measures for the Education Department and servicers, and how to restart payments after months of being in limbo.

In unity,
Randi Weingarten
AFT President