Earlier this week, the Trump administration turned the full force of the student loan collection apparatus on the poorest borrowers. On Monday, the federal government began resuming some of the most punitive collection measures at its disposal, including garnishment of wages and Social Security payments. After months of causing chaos at the Department of Education and sabotaging affordable loan repayment and relief plans, the White House is now plunging millions of working- and middle-class families — already scratching to make ends meet — into a new level of financial pain.
As a 54-year-old student debtor who has struggled for years to make my loan payments, I have experienced decades of a broken student loan system: failed income-driven repayment programs, mismanaged payment systems and public service loan forgiveness that stayed just out of reach. I know firsthand the terrifying hardship of having your meager wages seized because of a years-old loan you can’t pay off. President Donald Trump is not protecting taxpayers, as the government claims. He is punishing the working poor to justify tax cuts that benefit billionaires.
In spite of the exhaustion, going to college was the most hopeful time of my life.
For as long as I remember, Americans have been told getting a degree is the way to get ahead, and I believed that. Before going to college, I was hustling between fast-food jobs and telemarketing gigs to make ends meet, a young single mom with two children, just out of an abusive relationship. I could barely keep my head above water and needed a path out of poverty. So, with a herculean effort, I went back to school. My children and I moved back in with my parents; I juggled work as a nurse’s aide, taking a full course schedule at the local state university and caring for my children.
In spite of the exhaustion, going to college was the most hopeful time of my life. I built community, gained insights, developed critical thinking skills, learned how to research, learned to believe in a new world. That education has helped me see and understand my subsequent labor — a public transit scheduler, a certified nurse’s assistant, a mother and a grandmother — as a major social contribution to society.
But with more than $60,000 in student loans that date back to 1996, the price of that education still stalks me. A lifetime of work in underpaid care labor has meant that over the last 30 years of working and paying this debt, I have never earned enough to even make a dent in the principal. Today, I make $17.50 an hour; my husband and I together make less than $60,000 a year. I have less than $2,000 in a retirement account. My daughter and grandchildren live with us, and even with all three adults working and sharing expenses, we struggle to make ends meet.
Working-class families like mine need more relief — not higher bills and harsher consequences for missed payments. Instead, Trump is worsening consequences for struggling borrowers. Coupled with proposed changes to the student loan system being pushed by Republicans in Congress, the president and his party want to ensure a generation of student debtors die with their debt, and encourage future generations to avoid college out of fear of a similar fate. Republicans do not want to reform a broken lending system. Their goal is to decimate public higher education while enriching Wall Street lenders.
Resuming loan garnishments will be a disaster for countless families. Like millions of others, I am currently in SAVE forbearance — the Biden administration’s update of long-standing repayment programs pegged to a borrower’s income. The Republicans want to replace SAVE with a new “Repayment Assistance Plan” that is designed to bleed the working class or force borrowers into default.
As many as 10 million Americans have fallen behind on student loan payments — nearly 25% of all student borrowers. Now, millions face the seizure of their wages, tax refunds and even their Social Security payments. Trump doesn’t want to help people with their loans — he wants to punish us for having them.
Now once again, we are preparing for the bottom to fall out.
The consequences will be dire, as I know from experience. Prior to the pandemic, I worked as a direct service provider (DSP) for people with developmental disabilities, caring for my community’s most vulnerable. I monitored their health status, assisted them with their medical appointments and made sure they were clean, clothed, nourished. The work was immensely fulfilling; each day I knew I was making a difference.
But like most jobs caring for humans, the pay was barely above minimum wage. When I fell behind on my student loan payments — hundreds of dollars each month — the Department of Education started garnishing my salary, plunging my earnings below New York state’s minimum wage. Only the Covid-induced payment pause allowed me and my family the breathing room to scrape things back together.
Now once again, we are preparing for the bottom to fall out. I don’t know how I will make ends meet when payments inevitably resume. I face the risk of once again falling into default and garnishment. Recently, my loan servicer informed me that when my forbearance period ends, my loan payments could be over $2,000 a month. That is more than my monthly take-home pay. Where will that money come from? Will I stop buying gas to get to work? Paying electricity to heat and light our house? Most likely, we will be forced to reduce our food budget and my granddaughter’s weekly dance classes.
While Trump and House Republicans ready a budget that dispenses hundreds of billions of dollars to the military and extends gigantic tax breaks to the ultrawealthy, working people will be wrung dry by government garnishment and further denied opportunities to get ahead. Struggling American families need more support to go to college — not less. Trump’s plan punishes the poor for our desire and hard work to make our lives and our communities better. We need a movement fighting for working class people’s right to learn. The best way to eliminate the crisis of student debt won’t be punishing the poor who tried to seek an education; it will be free college for all. It’s time to start organizing for it.
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