Sponsor
Cleo Fields
Representative · D-LA
Representative · D-LA
This bill gives targeted near‑term relief and a path to eventual undergraduate loan forgiveness for public K–12 teachers—improving recruitment and reducing borrower costs—while raising federal costs, leaving some teachers and non‑teachers uncovered, and creating privacy and administrative risks from expanded IRS–Education Department data sharing.
Public K–12 teachers currently in repayment get loan payments paused and interest waived while teaching and for 6 months afterward, lowering near-term monthly obligations and interest accrual.
Public K–12 teachers who work full‑time for 8 consecutive years can have eligible undergraduate federal loan principal and interest forgiven, and forgiven amounts are excluded from federal gross income.
The pause/waiver and forgiveness provisions apply to existing Direct Loans already in repayment at enactment, immediately extending benefits to current teacher-borrowers.
All taxpayers ultimately bear higher federal costs to cover paused payments, waived interest, loan discharges, and reimbursements to institutions (increasing federal outlays and budgetary pressure).
Allowing the Education Department to access IRS tax-return employment data creates heightened privacy risks and could erode taxpayer trust if sensitive return information is disclosed or reused beyond loan verification.
The bill could increase federal outlays further if teachers use the same service periods to claim multiple service‑based forgiveness benefits (risk of double benefits).
Based on analysis of 4 sections of legislative text.
Forgives eligible Federal undergraduate loans after 8 consecutive years of full‑time public K–12 teaching, adds a service deferment, and permits Treasury‑to‑Education tax data sharing to verify service.
Official title: To amend the Higher Education Act of 1965 to provide undergraduate student loan forgiveness for public school teachers who provide 8 years of consecutive teaching service.
Introduced September 2, 2025 by Cleo Fields · Last progress September 2, 2025
Provides new federal loan‑forgiveness and borrower protections for public elementary and secondary school teachers: borrowers who work full‑time as public school teachers for 8 consecutive years become eligible for forgiveness of eligible Federal undergraduate loans, with forgiven amounts excluded from gross income. It also creates a teacher service deferment during service (plus six months) where principal payments are not required and interest does not accrue, and authorizes limited IRS‑to‑Education Department tax return information sharing to verify employment for forgiveness claims. Implements loan forgiveness via existing loan holder, cancellation, and institutional payment mechanisms; defines covered loans and teachers using existing ESEA definitions; and makes the forgiveness and deferment effective on enactment for applicable loan types.