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February 13, 2009
You Can Have a Career in Public Service, Even with Law School Debt
Many of you came to law school with dreams of being a prosecutor or a legal aid attorney or otherwise using your law degree to work in the non-profit sector. Then the realities of law school loans and the debt you’ll be paying back hit you and many of you started feeling that a public service career was unrealistic. Don’t give up hope yet. Several new programs have been created in the past couple of years that can make your dream of a public service career financially feasible.
One plan is the Department of Education’s Income Based Repayment Plan. This program won’t be up and running until July 2009, but it will essentially cap the percentage of your discretionary income that you will be expected to pay toward your student loan debt. Not every type of federal loan is eligible for this program, so you will have to pay attention to the types of loans you have. However, the basic rule of this program is, if you owe more than your annual salary you are likely eligible to benefit. More information is available at: http://www.ibrinfo.org/what.vp.html.
The Public Service Loan Forgiveness Program is another new option. This program requires individuals to make 120 eligible monthly payments toward their qualifying student loans while working full-time at a government agency, a 501(c)(3) organization, or other qualifying profession. At the end of that 120-month period, the government will forgive the remaining loan balance. Like many government programs, there are rather complicated eligibility requirements. You can learn more at: http://www.finaid.org/loans/publicservice.phtml and at: http://www.equaljusticeworks.org/files/studentloan_checklist_6-19.pdf.
There are also a variety of other methods for receiving loan repayment assistance or forgiveness. Social-service fellowships such as Peace Corps and AmeriCorps provide loan assistance in exchange for a term of public service with their organization. The website http://www.finaid.org/ provides a vast array of information about resources and programs that may assist you with your student loans.
And, of course, personal budgeting both during law school and after graduation are vitally important to being happy in a public service career. There are numerous budgeting and financial management websites, checklists, and calculators on the internet. Find a good one and start taking advantage of it now, while you’re still in school. As an example, Idealist has a good primer on “personal profit in a non-profit world”, available at: http://www.idealist.org/career/making_a_difference.pdf.
The Equal Justice Works website is a great resource for learning more information about loan repayment assistance programs (LRAPs), and other loan benefit programs that those working in the public sector may be eligible for. Learn more at: http://www.equaljusticeworks.com/resources.
Information for this posting was pulled from the following article: http://www.slate.com/id/2209031/=20
Posted by kcc17 at February 13, 2009 03:39 PM