Right-Wing Project 2025 Will Leave More Than 3.6 Million Vital Public Service Workers Drowning in Student Debt
October 2, 2024 | WASHINGTON, D.C. — Today, the Student Borrower Protection Center (SBPC) released a groundbreaking new analysis quantifying the economic toll of Project 2025 on millions of student loan borrowers working in public service fields across the country. The analysis focuses on the state-by-state economic harm that Project 2025 threatens to unleash on public service workers by eliminating the Public Service Loan Forgiveness (PSLF) program. Over the last three years alone, the Biden-Harris Administration has approved more than $69 billion in debt relief to nearly 1 million public service workers under PSLF.
According to the analysis, if proponents of Project 2025 are successful in eliminating PSLF, more than 3.6 million educators, social workers, nurses, servicemembers, first responders, and other public service workers currently in the pipeline for relief will be denied and saddled with $250 billion in additional student loan debt.
SBPC’s analysis provides a nationwide snapshot of how eliminating PSLF will harm public service workers across each state. The ten hardest-hit states—those that would be home to the most public service workers trapped in debt—include Pennsylvania, Georgia, and Michigan. See the analysis in the form of an interactive map here.
SBPC released the above data analysis at a virtual press call featuring Congresswoman Ayanna Pressley (MA-07), co-founder of the Stop Project 2025 Task Force, President of AFT Randi Weingarten, and Catherine Hutchinson, President, California State University Employees Union, SEIU Local 2579. A full recording of the event will be made available here.
“Project 2025 would have a devastating impact on people from all walks of life, including public service workers burdened by the crushing weight of student debt,” said Rep. Pressley. “Project 2025’s plan to eliminate the Public Service Loan Forgiveness program is cruel, anti-worker, and would deny essential relief to millions of people who have given back so much to our communities, our Commonwealth, and our country. As co-founder of the Stop Project 2025 Task Force, I won’t stop pressing to make sure this far-right manifesto does not manifest, and I’ll keep pushing to ensure our borrowers get the student debt relief they demand and deserve.”
“Let’s be clear, Project 2025 will be the next chapter of Donald Trump’s relentless attacks on public service workers who’ve dedicated their lives to helping others. It was not long ago that the AFT was suing Betsy DeVos for illegally denying hundreds of thousands of workers relief by breaking the bipartisan promise of PSLF,” said AFT President Randi Weingarten. “Now, under Project 2025, the same extremists want to scrap the program outright which will force millions of educators, public employees, nurses and first responders to again choose between making a payment and putting food on the table. Under the Biden-Harris Administration, nearly 1 million workers have benefitted from life-changing PSLF relief, and they are not finished yet. We will not go back, and we will not stop shining a spotlight on clear and present danger posed by the wretched, wrong and radical ideas in Project 2025.”
“Like so many workers, I took on student loans to advance my education, believing it would open doors. Like millions of educators, healthcare workers, and first responders, I relied on PSLF to ease the burden of student debt after years of public service. When you’re in student loan debt, you have to make choices. Can I buy a home? Can I choose to buy a new car? Can I enjoy small parts of my life like visiting my family or taking a girl’s weekend with my friends? The Biden-Harris administration’s recent changes to PSLF have already helped nearly a million workers, including me, to get out from under crushing debt. Loan forgiveness has changed my life!” said Catherine Hutchinson, President, California State University Employees Union, SEIU Local 2579. “If PSLF is eliminated, millions of public service workers, like myself, will be pushed further into debt. This is why we must fight to protect PSLF. Working people everywhere, from a fast-food worker in South Carolina to a nurse in Oregon should be able to thrive regardless of their education. For many of us, student loans were supposed to be a path forward, not something that holds us back. We need leaders that prioritize policies that put working people first.”“As our country once again calls on first responders and healthcare workers to confront unprecedented natural disasters in communities across the southeastern United States, the right-wing architects of Project 2025 conspire to strip away their student debt relief,” said SBPC executive director Mike Pierce. “The Biden-Harris administration delivered debt relief for nearly one million public service workers—fragile progress that Project 2025 is determined to erase. We won’t let them drag us back.”
Background
The right-wing Project 2025 is a 900-plus page roadmap filled with destructive policies that will wreak havoc on working families, including the 45 million Americans crushed under the weight of the student debt crisis. Along with calling for the elimination of the U.S. Department of Education, Project 2025 calls for:
- Eliminating time-and-employment-based student debt cancellation, which includes the PSLF program that provides public service workers debt relief after 10 years of public service and Income-Driven Repayment cancellation, which provides debt relief after 20 years of repayment.
- Eliminating the Biden-Harris Administration’s SAVE Repayment Plan—the most affordable repayment option available to borrowers—which will make student loans significantly more expensive for millions of student loan borrowers and their families.
- Making it even harder for students, including servicemembers, veterans, and their families, to seek debt relief after being defrauded by their school.
- Completely privatizing of the federal student loan program, which would force students and families to navigate the risky private student loan market with less consumer protections should they fall behind.
SBPC’s analysis comes on the heels of the first hearing before the Senate Banking Committee in more than a decade solely focused on the risks and harms of private student lending. SBPC’s Policy Director Aissa Canchola Bañez testified and shed light on how Project 2025 will exacerbate the student debt crisis, force millions of students and families into the jaws of the private student loan market, and lock our most vulnerable students and families out of higher education altogether.
Further Reading
SBPC’s analysis and map of the economic toll of Project 2025 on public service workers: https://protectborrowers.org/project-2025-pslf-state-by-state-map
See SBPC’s press release on the first Senate Banking hearing in over a decade focused solely on the private student loan crisis from September 2024: Senate Hearing Sets Stage for Federal Policymakers to Take Overdue Action to Protect Borrowers
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About Student Borrower Protection Center
Student Borrower Protection Center (SBPC) is a nonprofit organization focused on eliminating the burden of student debt for millions of Americans. We engage in advocacy, policymaking, and litigation strategy to rein in industry abuses, protect borrowers’ rights, and advance racial and economic justice.
Learn more at protectborrowers.org or follow SBPC on Twitter @theSBPC.