Two key components of KS’ committment to hoʻola lāhui are post-secondary education and community resilliency. Debt is often a major barrier and burden.

With that in mind, we are encouraging KS alumni, employees and extended ʻohana to learn more about, and if appropriate apply for two transformative federal student loan forgiveness programs. They’re being offered by the U.S. Department of Education through its website studentaid.gov.

Federal Student Loan Debt Relief Program
Under the newly-unveiled one-time Federal Student Loan Debt Relief program, indivdual borrowers with federally-backed loans can have up to $10,000 in student loan debt forgiven. Eligible Pell Grant recipients can have up to $20,000 in loan debt canceled. You may receive debt relief if you have eligible federal loans and meet income requirements. For example, individuals making less than $125,000 a year and married joint filers making less than $250,000 a year are eligible.

The deadline to apply for Federal Student Loan Debt Relief is December 31, 2023; however, you are encouraged to apply by November 15 of this year to have your application processed before the pause on federal student loan payments ends on January 1, 2023. Up to 43 million U.S. borrowers including over 110,000 Hawaiʻi residents may be eligible for this relief.

Public Service Loan Forgiveness program
A second federal program called the Public Service Loan Forgiveness (PSLF) program is geared toward borrowers who work public service jobs in government organizations on any level (federal, state, local, tribal or U.S. military) and 501(c)(3) non-profit organizations, including Kamehameha Schools.

Unlike the one-time Federal Student Loan Debt Relief program, qualified borrowers under the PSLF program can have 100% of their remaining federally-backed student debt forgiven after 10 years of qualified public service and student loan repayment. There is a “limited PSLF waiver” that allows borrowers to receive credit for certain past repayments that otherwise wouldn’t be allowed under the traditional PSLF program. The deadline to seek this waiver is October 31, 2022.

Koren Ishibashi, principal strategist in the KS Strategy and Transformation Group, qualified for the limited PSLF waiver and had $18,000 in debt either forgiven or refunded. She says working through the federal government bureaucracy was quite challenging, but that her persistence was rewarded.

“I would say to anyone who's applying, just hang in there. It's absolutely worth it in the end. When I finally got my refund check, it was like this huge relief,” says Ishibashi.

The National Council of Non-Profits recently held a webinar to help people navigate the PSLF application process. Here’s the link to that webinar.

Click here for more information on the PSLF waiver.

Scam alert
Also we want you to be makaʻala (alert), scammers are aleady making bogus phone calls and sending fraudulent emails. Studentaid.gov is the only legitimate way to apply for these programs, and applying is free. You can report scammers to reportfraud.ftc.gov

I would say to anyone who's applying, just hang in there. It's absolutely worth it in the end. When I finally got my refund check, it was like this huge relief.
Koren Ishibashi, KS Strategy and Transformation Group Principal Strategist

TAGS
post-high education,college graduates,college student loans,federal loan forgiveness

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