On Thursday, Senator Richard Durbin introduced the Adjunct Faculty Loan Forgiveness Act which would allow part-time adjunct faculty to access the Public Service Loan Forgiveness Program (PSLFP). The PSLFP provides educational loan forgiveness following 120 on time monthly payments made while employed full time in a public service job (which includes jobs at federal, state, and local governments and tax-exempt non-profits). Currently you must work at least 30 hrs a week for the entire year to have your payments qualify, which makes many part-time adjunct faculty ineligible. The new bill would allow adjunct faculty to be eligible for the PSLFP as long as they teach at least 1 course per year and do not hold a full-time non-public service job.

Actions you can take to support the Adjunct Faculty Loan Forgiveness Act:

As with any bill you support, calling or emailing your legislators is a good first step. This bill was referred to the Senate Committee on Health, Education, Labor and Pensions, so it is especially important to contact your Senator if they are on that committee (list of members can be found here. No CA Senators are members of the committee).

If you want to learn more about the bill, you can join a call with Senator Durbin and the Adjunct Action Network on August 5th.