Sen. Dick Durbin (D-Ill.) dropped a new bill Thursday that would potentially eliminate thousands of dollars in student loan debt for adjunct professors.
Citing that more than half of all faculty at public and non-profit colleges and universities in his home state of Illinois work on a part-time basis, Durbin said many adjuncts are currently ineligible for the federal student loan forgiveness program since they aren't employed on a full-time basis.
"As their budgets have tightened, colleges and universities have become increasingly reliant upon part-time adjunct faculty who face low pay, few if any benefits, and minimal job security," Durbin said in a statement. "The vast majority of these educators hold advanced degrees, and as a result, bear the heavy burden of student loan debt. It is only right that we expand their access to the Public Service Loan Forgiveness program, a benefit already available to many of their full-time colleagues."
The program Durbin wants to open up for adjuncts is called the Public Service Loan Forgiveness Program. Borrowers who pay 120 qualifying payments -- or 10 years of on time checks -- while working in government service or the non-profit sector, like at a university, are potentially eligible to have some or all of their federal student loans erased.
Nationwide, colleges have indeed shifted toward using more adjunct faculty, and fewer full-time tenured professors. Adjuncts often earn around $25,000 annually without benefits.
"As a part-time, temporary worker with a crushing amount of school debt, I know how important student debt reform is for ensuring education retains the promise of social mobility for both me and my fellow adjuncts and the students we teach," Marga Ryersbach, an adjunct who teaches in New York, said in a statement released by Adjunct Action, a group working to unionize part-time faculty. "I'm pleased that Senator Durbin is working to make sure we have access to a program that helps correct the imbalances wrought by huge amounts of education debt."