My former beat partner, Alyssa Rosenberg, gives the details on the new student loan forgiveness program in Thursday's Pay & Benefits Watch column. The new law, which took effect on Wednesday, provides loan forgiveness to students who enter government or nonprofit jobs. Loans they have not paid off after 10 years of public service will be forgiven in their entirety. One caveat is that employees must have made at least 120 monthly payments on the loan while in a qualifying job for their remaining debt to be erased.
As someone who is burdened by student loan debt, I can see the attractiveness of this new law. It will be interesting to see how this student loan benefit, combined with President Obama's call to service, will impact recruitment and retention of federal employees, especially in the information technology arena.
Brittany Ballenstedt
Brittany Ballenstedt writes Nextgov's Wired Workplace blog, which delves into the issues facing employees who work in the federal information technology sector. Before joining Nextgov, Brittany covered federal pay and benefits issues as a staff correspondent for Government Executive and served as an associate editor for National Journal's Technology Daily. She holds a bachelor's degree in journalism from Mansfield University and originally hails from Pennsylvania. She currently lives near Travis Air Force Base, Calif., where her husband is stationed.
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