1. United States
2. Va.
3. Letter

I appreciate the quick response to my recent message about student loan forgiveness. In the event that it was not simply a form letter, and with the hopes that some actual human in your office, at least, might read this, I'm happy to continue the conversation: You seem to have misunderstood me. Your solutions only address future borrowers. You appear to have no plans -- and indeed, no intention -- to help those of us already burdened by debt. Many in my generation took on debt at exorbitant interest rates and then graduated directly into a recession, so our wages have never kept up as we imagined they would when we signed those loans. So, since it seems you need help with this part of the issue, I have some suggestions. You don't have to do total forgiveness. But here are some measures that would manifestly improve the lives of millions of Americans (and allow them to spend more money and stimulate our fragile economy): - Reduce PSLF forgiveness requirement from 120 payments to 60 or 80 - Allow part-time employment to count toward PSLF. (As one example, I worked as an adjunct teacher for a few years. Contractually, I only worked 29 hours a week -- a number picked specifically to prevent me from qualifying as a full time employee. My actual workload, however, far exceeded that. Such work should count towards PSLF). - Forgive a percentage of loans rather than the whole. - Wipe out the accumulated interest and thus allow us to actually make progress on our principle. I do not believe any of these measures would burden current taxpayers (which, by the way, loan borrowers also are) in any meaningful way. Certainly it would not be as large an impact on the budget as the current war of choice in Iran. As it is, my new repayment will not keep pace with the interest. I will eventually hit the 20 year repayment mark regardless, and the government will end up forgiving far more money than if they had taken sensible measures to relieve the burden years earlier. You have the power to do something good here, something that will help millions of Americans. You'd be a hero for introducing any of the above measures. I hope you'll find the courage.