~KristaMechanicsville, Virginia
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My name is Krista Miller and I have been a full-time elementary educator for 23 years in Hanover County, Virginia. Out of the past 23 years, 9 of those years were spent teaching in a Title 1 school. I would like to begin by thanking you for the opportunity to tell my story and respectfully urge you to include FFEL Joint Spousal Consolidation Loans into the PSLF.
I graduated in 1988 and started my college journey not really knowing what I wanted to do for the rest of my life. I attended Virginia Commonwealth University enrolled as a business major, but then switched to Court Reporting School for 1 year, and then found myself back at VCU. Also during this time, I met and married my husband, Timm Miller. We both struggled with low-level jobs while renting an apartment in the city. It was in 1995, that we both decided to attend VCU together and get our degrees. My husband’s passion was technology which ultimately landed him a job at the university in the ITRT Department (working for the State) where he worked until July 2018. I started my journey as an elementary educator and graduated in 1999 with a master's in education and a bachelor's in psychology. We did not have any savings and both worked part-time, but still needed to take out school loans to make this dream come true. We were young and naive and did not realize the impact our decisions would have on us 10 years down the road.
Living paycheck to paycheck was our reality, and in 2000, we were sent letters from Sallie Mae to consolidate our loans to make one lower payment rather than two. Our first home was purchased so we jumped at this opportunity thinking it would allow us to get ahead and out of debt! However, a lot of events happened, such as hurricane Isabel, in which we lost one of our vehicles and the birth of our son which put even more strain on our finances and we turned to Sallie Mae for guidance. I remember being told that deferment and/or forbearance would not hurt us in the long run and give us time to get back on track. I learned very quickly that this was false information and our debt grew!
I cannot recall exactly when I learned about teacher forgiveness, but submitted the paperwork twice and was always turned down. I did not really understand why and did not pursue clarity for the reason. As time has gone by, my husband and I have celebrated 27 years of marriage, and faithfully paid our loan amount (which is as much as we pay on our house each month).
My anger and confusion stemmed from not being able to keep our house updated with repairs and always feeling the strain every day about how the bills will get paid along with a huge loan and house payment. Even more stress comes from knowing that the loan payment we make each month doesn’t even make a small dent in the principal because of all the interest.
I just recently submitted paperwork for the PSLF waiver, only to find out that our 100,000 debt amount does not qualify due to the type of loan. If this was not a Joint Spousal Consolidation Loan then my husband’s work for the state and my public education would qualify our entire loan for forgiveness. We also know that we have made 132 qualifying payments and have paid our loan on time for the last 20+ years. We have made a lot of sacrifices and have stayed committed to our excellent payment status, but without your help, we will be paying on this loan until 2038, which will be well into our retirement.
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