AFT’s Fight for Student Debt Forgiveness

AFT represents 1.7 million teachers: paraprofessionals, school staff, healthcare professionals, higher education faculty and other public employees. In other words, AFT members work in professions that make a difference in the lives of others—serving kids, patients and our communities.

Since many public service jobs require postsecondary education, tens of millions of students who had a calling to do the jobs Americans depend on for our healthcare, education, safety and freedom have had few options other than to be increasingly burdened by unsustainable student debt. Together, the AFT and the Student Borrower Protection Center (SBPC), a nonprofit organization focused on alleviating the burden of student debt for millions of Americans, fought to force the government to keep its promise to free generations of students —aspiring to be a part of the middle class and serve their communities—from a lifelong debt sentence.