In his State of the Union address on Wednesday evening, President Obama proposed extending a student loan forgiveness program to students who commit 10 years to public service careers. Obama's proposal appears to be an extension of the 2007 College Cost Reduction Act, which took effect in July 2009 and allows students to tailor payments made on federal loans to their incomes. Federal loans they have not paid off after 10 years of public service are forgiven in their entirety. The law does not apply to private loans, however, and public servants must make at least 120 monthly payments on the loan while in a qualifying job for their remaining debt to be erased.
It's unclear how Obama's proposal for public service loan forgiveness would differ from the recent change in the law, but it seems worth a mention, particularly when it comes to attracting current and future college graduates who previously may not have considered a career in public service.
The president also called for improvements in math and science education and for strengthening the role of community colleges in education. Community colleges are increasingly playing a role in grooming workers for health IT and cybersecurity positions in the federal government, so boosting their role and reach seems critical to ensuring the federal government has a top-notch IT workforce in the future.
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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