Getting a teaching degree is expensive but in some states you don't make minimum wage for teaching and you have to pay for all your own classroom supplies. This is breaking down how many hours you actually work, in the classroom and home grading papers, attending mandatory parent-teacher meetings, taking courses to maintain your status as a qualified teacher in your state, etc. etc. You can't just up and move to another state that pays better, those positions are already filled and there are waiting lists.
They didn't tell you all this when you decided to become a teacher. So now you can't pay the loan and your rent is late, you have no savings, you work another job to handle as many responsibilities as you can.
There are other careers in the same situation. Lots of kids went to college at the middle of the dot-com boom expecting a promised job in the tech trade. Four years later, the industry tanked and all these college graduates were out of work, and owing thousands.
Even some kids went to college to get a degree in agricultural studies to run the family farm. They graduated just two, three, or four years ago. And now there's a trade war and they will lose their farm - and have to pay back the loans.
No fault of the kids, has nothing to do with being cheap. They did the right thing, borrowed only as much as they expected to earn in their first year just like Clark Howard recommends. Unfortunately society rejected their expectations and told them they were SOL, and they'd better pay up what they don't have or else.
I don't think debt forgiveness is the right answer unless it's to a school that was shut down for defrauding the students.
But I think kids should be able to get a break on the pressure of repaying that debt. Add a couple more years to their payoff date, at no additional interest rate. Let them skip their birthday month's payment. Allow more generous deferments.
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