Though she applied to college more than 40 years ago, Frida Marte can clearly remember the details of the experience.
“I wouldn’t have been able to pay for college, being one of eight children with a single mother had it not been for that Pell grant,” she said. Two of her siblings also used TAP and BEOG to pay for school, Marte added. “We were living on welfare –- that’s how we were able to eat and cover our rent.” For Marte, there is a lot at stake. If the government discharges $20,000 of her student debt it would be a big help, Marte said. That’s why she was initially “thrilled” when she heard about Biden’s plan. Her son also received a Pell grant when he attended University at Albany, part of the State University of New York system where Marte went to undergrad, but it wasn’t enough to cover all of his costs.
Still, Thomas Gokey, an organizer with The Debt Collective, a debtor’s union that has been advocating for mass debt cancellation for more than 10 years, said it can be challenging for borrowers to feel confident the program will work as it’s supposed to. The Debt Collective recently began organizing student loan borrowers over 50 years old and Gokey said he’s heard from many facing this problem. Gokey said he’s gone deep with about half a dozen borrowers trying to help them navigate this situation.
“This is a conundrum,” Tyler said. “How do you fix this problem? It’s $10,000 that’s on the line. You’re looking at a computer data sheet that doesn’t mention it, so it’s just your word against whoever.” Bergeron doesn’t know exactly why the Pell grant data from before 1994 doesn’t show up for borrowers when they check the Department’s website, but he said he guesses it’s because current version of the student loan data system was built around 1994 and officials didn’t feel the need to upload all of the records from throughout the history of the program.
“The schools were panicking a little bit too,” she said. “They were getting all these phone calls. The Department did in the days after clarify that all of that is in their records and they’ll be double checking that.”Anne McKechnie, 61, said she believes she used a Pell grant in the mid-1980s. She reached out to her school to see if officials could provide her with any documentation that she got the grant and they responded with a form letter.
Just pay what you promised to pay and don’t try to make me pay your promise.
Oooohhhhh pleez. Enough already. We all have these loans. Just stop.
How is someone still paying a federal loan issued over 30 years ago?