For Immediate Release
September 17, 2007
Contact:
Elissa Free, (202) 662-9519
Kara Tershel, (202) 662-9037
WASHINGTON, D.C. - The work of Georgetown University Law Center Professor Philip Schrag was instrumental to the passage of the student loan forgiveness program for public service employees that Congress included in the College Cost Reduction and Access Act of 2007. The law was passed on September 7, and the administration has announced that President Bush will sign it. The reforms championed by Schrag and others will enable thousands of current and future student borrowers to choose their careers without being unduly influenced by their debt burdens. It will also allow government agencies and non-profit organizations to retain talented professionals who might otherwise seek higher-paying jobs in order to repay student loans.
Under the new law, high-debt, lower-income graduates can manage debt through an "income-based repayment" plan. They will not have to repay more than their "discretionary income," defined as 15% of their adjusted gross income minus 150% of the federal poverty level. Additionally, lawmakers created a new program, advocated by Schrag and others, through which public servants – including all government workers and all employees of nonprofit organizations that are tax-exempt under Section 501 (c) (3) of the Internal Revenue Code – are entitled to have their remaining educational debt forgiven after they have made payments through the income-based repayment plan while working full time for government agencies or nonprofit groups for ten years.
Schrag, professor of law and director of the Center for Applied Legal Studies at Georgetown Law, has written a detailed analysis of the legislation in an article that will be published in the Hofstra Law Review this fall and is currently posted on the Law Center’s Website at http://www.law.georgetown.edu/news/releases/documents/Forgiveness.pdf.
Schrag first suggested federal loan forgiveness, after ten years of public service employment, in a Hofstra Law Review article in 2001, and in his book, "Repay as You Earn," in 2002. In 2003, the House of Delegates of the American Bar Association endorsed his proposal, and made enactment of a law to implement it an ABA priority. In his capacity as vice-chair of the Committee on Government Relations and Student Financial Aid of the ABA’s Section of Legal Education, Schrag helped to lead a national advocacy effort to obtain the new legislation. Hundreds of nonprofit organizations supported this effort. In Congress, the measure was championed by Reps. John Sarbanes (D-Md.) and George Miller (D-Calif.) and by Sen. Edward M. Kennedy (D-Mass.).
Schrag’s work underscores Georgetown Law’s long-standing commitment to public service. Its clinical law program, the largest in the nation, is consistently ranked as the top in the country. The Office of Public Interest and Community Service (OPICS) and the Public Interest Law Scholars (PILS) program assist students wishing to pursue public interest careers. The Law Center also has an extensive pro bono program which seeks to foster in all students a commitment to service that will continue through their legal careers.
About Georgetown University Law Center
Georgetown University Law Center is one of the world's premier law schools. It has the largest full-time faculty in the nation and is pre-eminent in several areas, including constitutional, international, tax and clinical law. Drawing on its Jesuit heritage, it has a strong tradition of public service and is dedicated to the principle that law is but a means, justice is the end. With this principle in mind, Georgetown Law has built an environment that cultivates an exchange of ideas and the pursuit of academic excellence. It brings together an extraordinarily varied group of teachers, scholars and practitioners, as well as an outstanding student body representing more than 60 countries.
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