yes. i’m about half a year out from hitting 120 qualifying payments / finishing my 10 years of public service to get the last $25k wiped. i originally borrowed about $32k. i have paid “back” something like $24k. that’s right. borrowed $32k, paid $24k, still owe more than half. the juice on federally subsidized loans is harsh. that’s with the 2.5+ year COVID pause on payments and interest. even LIB liz warren said it was embarrassing that the program literally makes money off of student borrowers. and i borrowed significantly less than the average in my cohort, because i won some really big and highly competitive national scholarships. i basically got an entire year free from tuition. i went to a state school and paid at the in-state rate.

i remember i was in cuba some years ago talking to this younger cuban national who had gone to art school there, and we were talking about how education and assistance programs compare. i mentioned that school was extremely expensive in the US, even at the publicly-supported state institutions. dollar amounts aren’t really a good comparison because the economies are so distinct, but i mentioned that i was working on getting them forgiven by doing public service. he said the cuban system worked like that too, his eyes lighting up. i got the impression he really wanted to believe the US wasn’t a dystopian shithole, as he had family there and wanted to visit them and maybe even live for a while to broaden his horizons.

i asked how many years of service the cuban government wanted, and it was something like 2. i said in the US, it’s 10. and we had to make payments the entire time. and if we didn’t complete the 10 years, nothing was removed. no partial forgiveness. he struggled to internalize that, but agreed it was too great of a burden.