Helping Members Navigate Student Debt

We are fighting on many fronts for a future free from the overwhelming burden of student loan debt, including in Congress, at the Department of Education, and on campus. We’re also doing something more immediate: giving our members access to the tools they need to cancel their student debt through Public Service Loan Forgiveness (PSLF).

Thanks to a partnership with the American Federation of Teachers, AAUP members have free access to Summer, a trusted online platform that can help you navigate your student loan situation and simplify the PSLF application process. The Department of Education has extended some of the benefits of the special waiver period for PSLF that ended on October 31st. You can read more about that here.

Members can also sign up for free student-debt clinics offered by the AFT. 

Summer was started by student loan borrowers who wanted to help others avoid bad information and bad actors in the student loan market. Summer harnesses the expertise of public policy experts to optimize borrower options, and it uses technology to make the process easy and secure.

In the past two years, AFT members have saved an average of $170 on their monthly payments and save more than $57,768 over the life of their loans. Using Summer’s online student loan management platform, AAUP members who enroll in this free member benefit can:

• Enroll in income-driven repayment plans and other lower-cost options;
• Complete the Public Service Loan Forgiveness Employment Certification Form (ECF) and manage the PSLF application process;
• Find other options for loan forgiveness programs, including state- and occupation-based loan forgiveness; and
• Talk through options with Summer’s borrower success team to understand how to maximize loan repayment and forgiveness options.

Access to Summer will be ongoing, but we’re especially eager for AAUP members to get personalized advising ahead of the resumption of federal student loan repayment in September, and the end of the special waiver period for PSLF in October 2022. (For more information, check out our November 2021 PSLF update.)

Ready to take control of your student debt? Click the button below (member login required)

 (Members who are in a joint AAUP-AFT chapter already have access through AFT. You can access those benefits here.)

Below is a webinar we hosted on April 20 with more information about PSLF, Summer, and loan forgiveness. Watch below. Or sign up for a live debt clinic hosted by the AFT.