I am one of 43 million Americans in student debt | Opinion

On Tuesday, President Joe Biden announced that he would extend the moratorium on student loan debt through Aug. 31. This extends a pandemic-era policy that has allowed more than 43 million Americans who owe $1.6 trillion in student debt to postpone payments.

I am one of those 43 million.

When I began college at Seattle Pacific University in 1998, I planned to become a high school Spanish teacher. That changed after my first course in Christian theology. My professor, Kerry Dearborn, showed me that a woman could both teach theology and lead a congregation. Raised in a conservative, evangelical household, I had never known such a gracious, loving God. I chose to devote my life to sharing the good news of God’s intentions for the world.

With a little help from family, campus jobs, grants, and scholarships, I completed two Bachelor of Arts degrees debt-free. But the scholarships for my graduate work did not cover 10 years of full-time graduate work, forcing me to take out loans each semester. By the time I completed my doctoral degree, my loans totaled $89,000. That’s slightly less than the average $101,918 of debt of doctorate holders who attend private, nonprofit schools. Today, nearly nine years after graduating, my debt totals $95,000. While I never defaulted, there have been two periods of time, totaling 16 months, when I deferred payments due to unemployment and financial hardship.

My experience has convinced me that higher education must be recalibrated as a public good. To get there, President Biden should use his executive authority to provide full student debt cancellation and help Congress pass the College for All Act, which eliminates tuition at public colleges and universities for families making up to $125,000 and makes community college free for all.

In 2019, three years after achieving my dream of teaching theology at my alma mater, university administrators cut my tenure-track position to balance the budget. Devastated, I transitioned to congregational ministry in the Presbyterian Church. Since then, I have served small congregations with shrinking budgets.

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Before the pandemic, I made monthly student loan payments through the income-driven repayment plan. This federal student loan program, which enrolls over 8.5 million borrowers, adjusted the amount I owed each month based on income and family size. But my payments under this plan often did not cover accrued interest on my loans. When an income increase allowed me to pay more, my principal balance increase prevented me from making a dent in my overall debt.

At the same time, my husband, a clinical social worker, was also paying off student loans. Combined, our debt burden in March 2020 was $157,000. We lived month to month, unable to save for big-ticket items, retirement, or our son’s college education — much less for emergencies. Paying off our loans was like carrying a second mortgage. Our debt trapped us.

We held out hope that at least his loans could eventually be forgiven through Public Student Loan Forgiveness (PSLF), a program for public service workers started by Congress during the Bush administration. After a participant has made qualifying monthly payments for 120 months while working full time for an approved employer in a public service-related field, PSLF forgives the remaining balance on direct loans. But PSLF was riddled with problems stemming from stringent and complicated requirements; 98% of applicants were denied forgiveness on their loans.

In July, the Biden administration extended PSLF eligibility to clergy and other student loan borrowers engaged in religious-oriented work. My challenge is finding a church that can afford to pay me full time so I can qualify for the program.

In my field, securing a full-time teaching position in a college or university is near impossible. If I can stay employed full time in the church, I have at least five years worth of payments until I can be granted forgiveness under the PSLF. Assuming I can afford to make those payments without interruption, I will be 47 years old, with a son in high school and no retirement or college savings.

“Paying off our loans was like carrying a second mortgage. Our debt trapped us.”

The Biden administration is dithering over whether to grant wide-scale student loan cancellation, but Miguel Cardona, the secretary of education, has legal authority under the Higher Education Act of 1965 to cancel all student loans without authorization from Congress. With the looming prospect of wide-scale losses for Democrats in the midterm elections, it is economically and politically expedient for Biden to use his authority to enact complete student loan cancellation.

Such a move is also consistent with Biden’s deeply held faith. Quoting St. Augustine in his inaugural address, he cast a vision of an America defined by our common love for things such as dignity and opportunity. How can we achieve this vision in a system of higher education in which 43 million Americans are imprisoned to debt to the tune of $1.6 trillion dollars?

Shannon Smythe is a graduate of Princeton Theological Seminary and an ordained teaching elder in the Presbyterian Church (U.S.A.). She lives with her family in Morrisville, Pa.