The March to Financial Freedom Continues...

How this blog hopes to help with the march...

The move toward personal and financial freedom for Joint Consolidation Loan (JCL) borrowers requires them to be champions, not consumers as borrowers must continue to self advocate and organize with other borrowers. This blog, website, and Facebook Group provide actionable information to empower borrowers for effective self-advocacy and organized group efforts.

Among surveyed DoUsPart! members, 88% have applied through Federal Student Aid (FSA) to separate their Joint Consolidation Loans (JCL) and have successfully converted them into individual Direct Consolidation Loans—a cause to celebrate.  Sources indicate that as of September 2025, ED had received about 6,600 applications for separation and servicers had processed about 5,400, so roughly 82%. This success reflects our organization's work in building a community support structure and amplifying borrower voices to restore JCL borrowers to federal statute. 

However, we still seek financial freedom and stability which starts by seeing the written promise of access to the PSLF Waiver and the Income Driven Repayment Adjustment applied. No matter if you are  happily married, cooperatively divorced, uncooperatively divorced or a victim of physical/financial abuse, separation does not redeem the ongoing financial harm caused by years of statutory vacuum or the years of waiting for implementation of the Joint Consolidation Loan Separation Act (JCLSA).  More than three years after the JCLSA became Public Law 117-200, borrowers' financial freedom remains hostage to delayed implementations and gutted resources. These delays continue to harm borrowers financially. This prevents real relief and forces debtors into prolonged financial and legal peril. While we have built community and restored JCL borrowers back to the Higher Education Act (HEA1965), our work continues. Our next immediate aim is to ensure FSA's policies are applied to the PSLF Waiver and Income-Driven Repayment (IDR) Account Adjustments. Meeting these promises is essential to addressing the nuanced challenges borrowers have faced since 2006.

This blog documents and guides the journey to restoring borrowers' financial freedom and stability by focusing on statutes and Department of Education (ED) policies. Our message centers on published statutes, policies, and procedures for JCLSA as they relate to JCL separation, PSLF/IDR payment crediting, PSLF Waiver processing, and IDR account adjustments. Once these are realized, we can address more nuanced situations as these written fundamentals form our critical basis.

This blog will be a living document for our collective action and understanding as things develop. To self-advocate and advocate together, we must stay informed about our situation and changing circumstances. This blog aims to provide awareness of current events, status changes, and the evolving context for JCL borrowers.  Information that we need to remain discoverable will be posted here rather than in Facebook to ensure it is not lost in the fluidity of Facebook's Newsfeed.

​The rest of this website shares our history: our collective experience through 16+ years without statutory protection, our efforts to reinstate ourselves to the HEA, and resources specific to JCL borrowers and JCLSA. Resources for self and group advocacy remain central to our ongoing success.