- Beto O’Rourke wants teachers to focus on education and not repaying loans.
- The federal government already forgives a portion of student loan debt for teachers.
- This will be part of O’Rourke’s $500 billion education plan.
WASHINGTON – Beto O’Rourke unveiled his plan to forgive student debt for all public teachers.
How Does Beto’s Plan Differentiate To What Is In Place?
The fact of the matter is, public educators already receive student loan forgiveness. But there are certain requirements they need to meet and limitations that are put into place.
The federal government will forgive up to $17,500 of student debt for teachers. For a teacher to qualify, they must teach for at least five years. They must also be teaching in low-income schools during this time.
The details of O’Rourke’s plan are not available, but he wants to forgive student loans for all public educators. This means forgiveness for teachers who are not teaching in low-income schools. And there is no limit to how much will be forgiven. Educators will receive 100% student loan forgiveness under O’Rourke’s plan.
It is not currently known if there will be a five-year teaching requirement to qualify for O’Rourke’s plan. It is also currently unknown if his plan will include private loans. We do know that Beto wants to relieve the burden of student debt to educators.
“Those educators struggling under these conditions, providing that kind of wraparound care for every child entrusted within their care. I want to make sure that they can focus on that job, that child in front of them and not have to work a second or third job, as so many do,” said O’Rourke.
Comparing Beto’s Plan To Other Plans
Beto O’Rourke is not the first person to come out with a student loan forgiveness plan. Sen. Elizabeth Warren made waves earlier this year saying that she wanted to forgive student debt. Warren wants to forgive about 95 percent of student loans.
Warren’s plan will forgive $50,000 of debt whose earnings are under $100,000. A large part of the debt will be forgiven for those who earn between $100,000 and $250,000. The only people who wouldn’t receive forgiveness under Warren’s plan are those whose earnings are above $250,000.
Sen. Bernie Sanders plan is a lot simpler than Sen. Warren’s plan. Sanders wants to completely forgive all student loan debt. There are no restrictions on who will receive student loan forgiveness in Bernie’s plan.
The average salary for public educators is around $35,000 to $40,000. This means that both Warren’s and Bernie’s student loan forgiveness plan will include public educators. Their plan goes a lot further than O’Rourke’s because it is not limited to public educators. O’Rourke will have to expand on his plan if he wants to compete with the other candidates, as his current election odds sit at +2000 for the 2020 Democratic nominee.