News & Views of Phillips Since 1976
Saturday April 20th 2024
Student Loan Program Changes Could Help Forgive Your Debt
By SHANNON DOYLE
Reprinted with permission from LSS Financial Counseling Sense and Centsibility Blog
If you are paying off student loans, you probably have noticed recent headlines about making student loan forgiveness possible for more borrowers. The U.S. Department of Education (DOE) is making (temporary) fixes, officially called a waiver, to the Public Service Loan Forgiveness (PSLF) program. Here’s your guide to understanding the DOE’s changes and navigating the system so you can get your payments counted towards forgiveness.
If these changes affect you, it’s crucial that you take action as soon as possible. The waiver will end on October 31, 2022.
What is Public Service Loan Forgiveness (PSLF)?
College graduates working for government agencies and non-profits are typically paid much less than their counterparts in private industry, yet they need the same level of education. Congress passed legislation in 2007 creating the Public Service Loan Forgiveness program to make public service more appealing to graduates. PSLF offers forgiveness on the remaining balance of qualifying federal student loans after 120 qualifying payments, while working for a qualifying employer.
What Changes is DOE Making to PSLF?
The Department of Education created this waiver — finally — after years of complaints and a dismal rate of loan forgiveness. PSLF has been riddled with poor communication about program processes, confusion over what payments qualify for forgiveness, poor servicing and administrative foot dragging.… Read the rest “Student Loan Program Changes Could Help Forgive Your Debt”
New Council Brings New Hope for Environmental Justice in East Phillips
By STEVE SANDBERG
As Minneapolis residents waited to see what change would result from the November 2021 election, 75 to 100 community members gathered on Saturday, December 18th at the East Phillips Cultural Center gymnasium to lift up their ongoing work to bring community led development to the 7.6 acre Roof Depot site in the East Phillips neighborhood. Led by EPNI staffer Joe Vital, the meeting highlighted EPNI’s work to save the 230,000 square foot Roof Depot building for aquaponic farming, affordable housing, solar development, and a youth-led coffee shop, event center, and bicycle repair and assembly facility. Local BIPOC businesses displaced in the aftermath of the murder of George Floyd are also supporting this community led effort. The meeting featured appearances of City, County and State level representatives. Restating their long-held support for the project were State Senator Omar Fateh and Hennepin County Commissioner Angela Conley. Neighborhood resident Karen Clark, who represented the area for 37 years in the state legislature, presented compelling documentation on disparities of income and wealth, as well as extremely elevated rates of asthma, childhood lead poisoning, and other environmentally related illnesses occurring in our majority BIPOC neighborhood.… Read the rest “New Council Brings New Hope for Environmental Justice in East Phillips”
Keep citizen journalism alive!
First Black Police Chief in Minneapolis Leaves Much Undone
By DWIGHT HOBBES
This commentary first appeared on the Minnesota Reformer, https://minnesotareformer.com
It is difficult to countenance Minneapolis Police Chief Medaria Arradondo’s betrayal of the Black citizens who greatly helped put him in that job.
Indeed, before he assumed the position in 2017, it would’ve been unthinkable. But, well, here you have it. Rondo, as he’s informally known, did nothing concrete about the department’s occupying-army treatment of a population desperately in need of a strong ally, beyond mandating body cams. His ordering fewer marijuana stops is laudable but not much more than politically correct. And he hardly deserves a pat on the back for the no-brainer of firing Derek Chauvin and his accomplices, taking a bow by testifying in court. At length, however, he sided with the enemy, then, with the announcement that he’s retiring next month, he blithely went on about his business.
When Arradondo’s name came up for consideration, the roar of support from Black folk, led by the likes of such veteran activists as Rev. Jerry McAfee, Spike Moss and Bill English, was not to be ignored. Had it been denied, all hell likely would’ve broken loose: protests up and down the streets and sidewalks in front of City Hall, demands for Mayor Jacob Frey’s head on a spike, the whole nine. … Read the rest “First Black Police Chief in Minneapolis Leaves Much Undone”