Your Student Loans Forgiven

published 2 April 2007

I am a speech language pathologist assistant with the special-education department in a low-income school district. I have a mountain of student-loan debt. My Perkins loan has been forgiven 100% because of where I work. Can my Stafford loans be forgiven, too? I am trying to live on a teacher's salary.

Your job may qualify you for the Stafford loan forgiveness program, too, although the requirements are tougher than they are for Perkins loans, which are awarded to students with the greatest financial need.

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Special education teachers can have up to $17,500 of their Stafford loans forgiven if their primary responsibility is to provide special education to children with disabilities that correspond to their area of special education training. Full-time math and science teachers who teach in a secondary school also can get up to $17,500 of their student loans forgiven; other teachers may get up to $5,000 in Stafford loans forgiven.

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Ask Kim

As the "Ask Kim" columnist for Kiplinger's Personal Finance, Lankford receives hundreds of personal finance questions from readers every month. She is the author of Rescue Your Financial Life (McGraw-Hill, 2003), The Insurance Maze: How You Can Save Money on Insurance -- and Still Get the Coverage You Need (Kaplan, 2006), Kiplinger's Ask Kim for Money Smart Solutions (Kaplan, 2007) and The Kiplinger/BBB Personal Finance Guide for Military Families. She is frequently featured as a financial expert on television and radio, including NBC's Today Show, CNN, CNBC and National Public Radio.