This featured article is based on an interview with Shanna Hayes, who is a special education teacher in the DC metro area, owes more than $150,000 in loans, and has worked with the Student Debt Crisis Center. Edited for length and clarity.
As a child in upstate New York, I never wondered if I could go to college—my mother made it clear that college was a must and happily gave me a Guide. of Fiske Colleges when I was a teenager. In 2011, I graduated from the College of New England with a second degree in mathematics and became the first person in my family to earn a college degree.
I didn’t think about my loans as an undergraduate. Yes, I had taken out $100,000, but I thought that with a steady job I would be able to manage my payments. No one has ever explained to me whether interest is increasing or expecting an endless stream of future cases.
I wasn’t prepared for the certainty of my teaching salary or the complicated nature of student loan interest.
I’m now 35 years old, and I have a long history with my student loan, from installment plans, to school fees, to the SAVE plan, which the appeals court just blocked you. I’ve worked a variety of jobs, earned three degrees, and survived a traumatic brain injury, but I still owe more than I originally borrowed. And with the lawsuits and delays, my $150,000 in private and federal loans are now on the line.
When I got my first college teaching job in a public school district in New Hampshire, I thought my $29,000 a year salary was a big win. And why not? I was making more money than the rest of my family, more than I ever did in my previous low income situation. But I soon realized that I couldn’t afford the rent and the necessities.
The easiest, fastest way to get a higher salary was another degree – and with it, more debt. So I went to school in 2015 and took out $35,000 more in loans. While I was in school, I was placed in school debt and started paying off my debt again in the fall of 2016. At that time, I was earning $10,000 more per year, thanks to the balance of with a new one. Finally, things felt more stable. It’s not easy, but it’s possible.
A traumatic brain injury knocked my life – and my credit – down.
Then, on January 10, 2016, I suffered a traumatic brain injury that left me unable to do anything. I had to learn to walk again, tie my shoes, dial my phone number. To be honest, I didn’t even remember having loans, let alone knowing how to pay them off. However, throughout my months of recovery, my debts increased and interest increased. By the time I called my credit card in late March 2016, my credit score had dropped over 400 points.
The moneylender told me they couldn’t help me, even though I couldn’t pay. I didn’t consolidate my loans, so each semester counted as its own loan – between my undergraduate and graduate years, I had more than a dozen loans. It was like I had 15 different car payments and I didn’t pay a single one. In fact, it seemed like I had not paid my bills for months.
Between getting into another cash back plan, going back to school for a bit, and spending hours on the phone, I finally got into the SAVE plan. This plan took into account my wife’s loans, and was the cheapest program I have ever been on in my lifetime as a borrower.
The stability did not last, however, with a small number of cases never seeming to end. I got off SAVE before the 8th circuit court blocked it, when I applied to consolidate my loans at the end of May – who knows how I would have felt if I was still on SAVE borrower, I live in no man’s land. Now, my integration has been processed, but my request for a new plan has not been processed, even though I applied three months ago.
The lawsuits are making my situation worse and I fear my financial future hangs on this election.
My payments are on hold while I wait for processing, but the interest is still piling up. The case blocking SAVE doesn’t help – it just reminds me how static everything is and how long it takes to clear. I want to believe that consolidating my loans was the right choice, but right now I have no guarantees. I thought I was doing something for my long-term benefit, but with the delays and the rollercoaster of litigation, I may end up paying more than I expected.
Even now, at 35 years old and with three degrees, I don’t feel like I understand the status of my loans. It is impossible to know who can answer my questions. It takes hours to get through to a loan servicer, and that’s only if I press the right button or hang on the phone long enough. If I talk to someone, they rarely know the answer.
The cases feel political to me, but I don’t see why politicians are interested in hindering my ability to live. There are many misconceptions about who benefits from loan forgiveness – usually, it’s not doctors or lawyers who make hundreds of thousands a year, but people like me.
I don’t have a problem paying off the loans I took out, but I have a problem with how the interest is compounded. My current mortgage is 20% interest and rising. The election is looming in front of me, with my financial future depending on who occupies the White House and how they feel about student loans.
Outside the SAVE plan and caught between arrests, court delays and political battles, I feel like I’m back where I’ve always been: waiting for the end of my guilt, with no end in sight clear.
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