This month is supposed to be the first one when nurses, social workers, soldiers and teachers like Mr. Shafer become eligible for loan forgiveness. But he will not be among them for reasons that are straight out of the theater of the absurd.
In 2015, he discovered that he was enrolled in a particular type of ineligible payment plan and would need to start his decade of payments all over again, even though he had been paying more each month than he would have if he had been in an eligible plan. Because of his 8.25 percent interest rate, which he could not refinance due to loan rules, even those higher payments weren’t putting a dent in his principal. So the $70,000 or so that he did pay over the period amounted to nothing, and he’ll most likely pay at least that much going forward.
He’s unlikely to be the only one. About a quarter of the people who borrow money for higher education end up in jobs that could qualify for public service loan forgiveness.
