Certain Connecticut student loan borrowers are eligible to receive up to $20,000 over four years in loan reimbursement through a new program launching on New Year’s Day.
Several state lawmakers came together on Wednesday at Southern Connecticut State University to laud the upcoming launch of the Student Loan Reimbursement Program.
SLRP requires the Office of Higher Education to annually reimburse eligible individuals for up to $5,000 of their student loan payments per year, for up to four years.
The program is designed to help any qualifying applicants make a dent in their student loan debt. Dwayne Smith, the SCSU interim president, emphasized the aid this program will provide for Connecticut residents.
“Borrowers collectively owe $1.6 trillion as of September 2023. Rising tuition costs, which outpace income growth, has left scholars and families with a growing financial burden,” he said. “As a proud first-generation college graduate, I deeply understand the resilience it takes to pursue higher education while managing significant financial challenges. These scholars carry not only their own dreams, but also the hopes of their families and their communities.”
To qualify for the program, applicants must: have graduated from a Connecticut state public or private college or university with a bachelor’s or associate degree; have an occupational/professional license or certificate; or have been granted a hardship waiver by the OHE and left their college in good standing.
Qualifiers for the hardship waiver include personal or family medical or financial circumstances, which led to the student being unable to continue their education.
Applicants for SLRP must also be a Connecticut resident for at least five years, must have an outstanding loan balance and have made payments to the qualifying loans and have 50 hours of volunteer work.
The filing status of applicants also matters. Those who file their federal tax return as single and unmarried must have a Connecticut adjusted gross income of no more than $125,000. Married applicants cannot have an income of more than $175,000.
Local lawmakers and the Biden administration have attempted to address the issue of growing student loan debt over the past few years.
Terrence Cheng, chancellor of the Connecticut State Colleges and Universities, recounted his own challenges toward repaying his student loans and said he understands the struggles borrowers go through.
“We understand that student loan debt drags you down. I remember these challenges personally with my wife when we were still a young couple. And we were trying to figure things out. That’s a lot of weight to carry,” he said. “It hurts your ability to buy a house, hurts your ability to buy a car, hurts your ability to think about starting a family.”
Plans to address the student loan debt issue go further than just reimbursement programs. “The board and I hope to freeze tuition across [Connecticut State Universities] for the next two years,” Cheng said.
Although student loan debt plagues the nation, Connecticut has the fifth highest amount of student loan debt in the country, according to Cheng.
According to the report “Student Loan Debt by State” from Education Data Initiative, there are about 507,200 student borrowers in Connecticut and each one owes an average of $36,672 in student loan debt.
Lt. Governor Susan Bysiewicz expressed her support for the program and said Gov. Ned Lamont is also proud to invest in SLRP.
“In our state of just over 3 million people, 500,000 people with a significant amount of college debt, that’s one in six. And my husband and I, when we graduated from school, [our debt] was twice as much as our mortgage payment, so we absolutely get it,” Bysiewicz said.
Aidon McCray, a sophomore majoring in business management at SCSU, said the program will aid his uncertain future.
“Just like many students, I’m navigating the reality of student loans. The truth is I don’t even know how much I’ll owe when I graduate. And that uncertainty is something, unfortunately I share with countless other students,” McCray said.
McCray mentioned that many of his closest friends have to start their higher education in community colleges because they cannot afford to attend CSCU or other state universities. As an entrepreneur, McCray restores customized footwear but questions how he will invest in his business if he is continuously weighed down by student loans.
“I have a lot of dreams and aspirations. But these debts — that I’m not even paying for it yet — are already putting me in a box by limiting what I think I can do because of the reality of these financial burdens that’s to come,” he said.
Sydney Nelloms, an assistant professor of sociology at SCSU, worries about the future of students like McCray and those she teaches.
“The faculty here at [SCSU] and I have had the privilege of working with bright and driven students who represent the future of our society. But too often I see the same students burdened with the unfair disadvantage of the crushing load of student debt that will shadow them for decades after graduation,” Nelloms said.
“Student loans have become predatory for young people, these loans are marketed as investments in their future, but the reality is often far more complex,” she said. “The likelihood of paying off debt for students without STEM degrees or other degrees that give a higher return on their investment, unfortunately, is mostly low. Those of us with social science, humanities and similar degrees often struggle with this.”
The passage of SLRP was done through a bipartisan effort, according to Rep. Eleni Kavros DeGraw, D-Avon, who is chair of the Planning and Development Committee.
“When we first brought it forward, people were not getting it entirely. They kept saying: ‘Well, we already retain our students. We don’t need another retention bill.’ And I said it’s not a retention bill, it’s an economic participation bill,” she said.
“Because we crafted this bill in a bipartisan manner, we were not only a Democratic think lab trying to figure out how we were going to put this together,” she said. “We had many, many supportive Republican colleagues and co-sponsors on this bill, and that was significant because at the state level, you could work together and sometimes it may be better than what we see every day in Washington.”
As for the success of the program, the OHE and lawmakers are optimistic.
“They’re projecting about 100,000 people to apply,” Rep. Corey Paris, D-Stamford, said. “They’ve been inundated with calls and emails since we’ve announced this. Many people have already got their community service done well in advance.”
The SLRP will be available through the OHE’s CT Scholars Database. A link to the site will be available through OHE’s website with instruction on how to apply.
This story originally appeared in the Connecticut Mirror Nov. 20, 2024.
