[Congressional Record Volume 165, Number 29 (Thursday, February 14, 2019)]
[Senate]
[Pages S1386-S1387]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]

      By Mr. CARDIN (for himself, Mr. Cornyn, and Mr. Jones):
  S. 532. A bill to amend the Higher Education Act of 1965 to provide 
that an individual may remain eligible to participate in the teacher 
loan forgiveness program under title IV of such Act if the individual's 
period of consecutive years of employment as a full-time teacher is 
interrupted because the individual is the spouse of a member of the 
Armed Forces who is relocated during the school year pursuant to 
military orders for a permanent change of duty station, or the 
individual works in a school of the defense dependents' education 
system under the Defense Dependents' Education Act of 1978 due to such 
a relocation, and for other purposes; to the Committee on Health, 
Education, Labor, and Pensions.
  Mr. CARDIN. Mr. President, I would like to bring the Senate's 
attention to the bipartisan Preserving Teacher Loan Forgiveness for 
Military Spouses Act of 2018, which I am introducing today with 
Senators Cornyn and Jones. This legislation eliminates a barrier for 
teachers in military families to earn federal student loan forgiveness 
for their years of public service.
  The Department of Education's Teacher Loan Forgiveness program 
rightfully incentivizes teachers to commit to students in our lowest 
income school districts in exchange for up to $17,500 in Federal 
student loan forgiveness. Teachers qualify for the Federal student loan 
forgiveness once they have taught full-time for at least five 
consecutive years at a low income school or educational service agency. 
Teachers who are forced to move in the middle of the school year to 
follow their spouse's relocation or reassignment to another 
installation in the United States or abroad lose their accrued 
eligibility for the program and must restart their five years of 
service under current law.
  Last Congress, a Maryland constituent brought to my attention the 
barriers her daughter faced when seeking Federal student loan 
forgiveness despite her commitment to public service. Her daughter, a 
teacher married to a member of the military, was in the middle of her 
fifth consecutive year teaching at one of Maryland's lower income 
schools. As any military spouse knows, relocation or reassignment 
orders can come at any time, upending the lives of the service member 
and their family. Rather than being able to complete a fifth year of 
teaching in a Maryland school, this family had to relocate with three 
months left in the school year. Despite this family's double commitment 
to service for our military and our schoolchildren, this military 
spouse missed the opportunity to have a portion of her Federal student 
loans forgiven. No military spouse

[[Page S1387]]

should be punished for following his or her spouse's relocation or 
reassignment.
  The legislation that Senators Cornyn, Jones and I have introduced is 
a common sense proposal to allow military spouses to earn the benefits 
that they have dutifully worked towards and continue to incentivize 
individuals to teach our hardest to educate children. Our legislation 
provides a waiver from the Department of Education's Teacher Loan 
Forgiveness program's five consecutive years of service requirement for 
qualified military spouses if their spouse is relocated during the 
school year pursuant to military orders from the Armed Forces. This 
waiver will allow individuals to remain eligible for the Teacher Loan 
Forgiveness program should they resume teaching full-time at a 
qualifying low-income school district within one year of their 
relocation. In addition, this legislation requires the Department of 
Education to provide a report to Congress every two years on the number 
of military spouses who remained eligible for Teacher Loan Forgiveness 
due to this legislation. In addition, it would allow military spouses 
that follow their service member overseas to accrue periods of service 
towards the Teacher Loan Forgiveness program if they teach in one of 
the Department of Defense Education Activities operated schools.
  I urge my colleagues to join in this effort to help families who are 
wholly committed to public service by supporting the Preserving Teacher 
Loan Forgiveness for Military Spouses Act. No family committed to 
service of our country should lose out on earned benefits due to a 
technicality.

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