Law Schools

Public Service Loan Forgiveness Is Looking Pretty Bleak, But Maybe You Don’t Need To Worry

The approval rate can't remain at 1 percent forever... can it?

It’s not indicative of what a likely approval rate is going forward. It’s not indicative of some draconian interpretation of the law to keep everyone out, even if you’re otherwise qualified. All those years ago, it wasn’t clear to people what they should be doing. Going forward, it’s very easy to comply and check the boxes if you know what you need to do. I don’t think it’s a problem.

It really revolves, I think, around the failure of the Department of Education to think about how they were going to implement it and how they were going to determine who qualified and who didn’t in the years after it was enacted. The earliest cohort will be the most challenged in accessing this benefit.

Christopher Chapman, president of AccessLex Institute, an organization that advocates for the affordability of legal education, commenting on the 1 percent approval rate for Public Service Loan Forgiveness applications. Only 96 borrowers of the 289 who were approved out of the 28,000 who applied for this benefit had their loans discharged. Chapman thinks thee numbers will improve, and AccessLex is holding several webinars this month to help borrowers figure out how to unlock this seemingly impossible student loan achievement.


Staci ZaretskyStaci Zaretsky is a senior editor at Above the Law, where she’s worked since 2011. She’d love to hear from you, so please feel free to email her with any tips, questions, comments, or critiques. You can follow her on Twitter or connect with her on LinkedIn.