As millions of people across the country suffer under the burden of their student loans, some have it worse than others. Service workers, like teachers and nurses, qualify to have their loans forgiven after ten years of qualifying payments. That’s a great thing for anyone working in the service industry, but that’s not the whole story.
Service workers are particularly vulnerable to losing their work license altogether if they default on their student loans. Even while working a service job, paying loans and other bills can be a difficult task. If you go into default, it can devastate your credit score and make life difficult. But for service workers, it goes a step beyond.
Service Workers and Student Loans
It happened to Roderick Scott Sr., a middle school teacher in the Dallas area who in 2015 attempted to renew his license, but was prevented to do so. The reason? He defaulted on his loans. Texas is just one of 19 states where teachers can lose their teacher’s license if they don’t pay back their student loans.
http://financialhelpers.com/the-cons-of-strategic-student-loan-default/
Within the next few years, Scott was filing for bankruptcy. His dream job was almost over.
States are taking drastic measures to force people to pay back their student debts, a problem that is being an epidemic. In the U.S. alone, students owe $1.5 trillion in outstanding debt.
Critics of this law states are adopting say preventing people from obtaining or renewing their license and forcing them to lose work is counterproductive. If you can’t work the job you went to college to get, you’re not going to be able to pay back your loan.
Texas has already prevented over 250 teachers like Scott from renewing their license over the last five years.
“You do understand that, basically, I have been fired because you won’t allow [the Texas Education Agency] to renew my certification. You’re going to ‘fix things’ so that I can’t pay anything?” Scott remembers telling his loan officer.
If you work in the service industry and your livelihood is threatened, call Financial Helpers today. Our team of qualified loan experts can determine if you’re qualified for student loan forgiveness and lower overall payments. You can reach us at:
The Pain is Real
In 2015, when Scott felt he took all the right steps to renew his license, he was given the heartbreaking news that he couldn’t renew. His job was threatened. He had no choice but to borrow more money to pay back the loan collector, who also wanted $300/month.
He wasn’t fast enough. By the time he had everything settled, he lost his department chair and his students were moved out from under him, losing a lot of money in the process.
When he couldn’t pay his rent, he was evicted and had to set up a GoFundMe page. The sad part is there are thousands of teachers who are at risk of enduring the same loss that Scott did. He had to sacrifice everything just to keep his job.
All across the country, student loans are becoming a burden many students don’t come back from. It keeps them from making life decisions, pushing things off like buying a house or car, for several decades. Millennials aren’t getting married or having children until later in life. All of this is at a major cost to the U.S. economy.
