KILLEEN, TX — President Donald Trump took action to ensure that totally and permanently disabled veterans are able to get their federal student loan debt discharged. The administration says it’s something that has created “a serious and critical” problem for those who qualify, but couldn’t access.
More than $750 million dollars in debt is being forgiven for 25,000 “totally and permanently disabled veterans.” Those soldiers were already eligible, but those loans had not been discharged.
We talked to several students attending A&M Central Texas who served our country.
“It actually opened up a lot of doors for me personally. Because a lot of soldiers, during their tenure, give their college post 9/11 to their children. And some of them didn’t make the change in time for them, so this is providing them a means and opportunity to go to college for themselves,” said Jimmy Floyd, a disabled veteran student.
“This has created a serious and critical problem for disabled veterans, who must deal with the day-to-day consequences of their service-connected injuries, and for our military, as readiness and recruitment suffer when we do not take care of our veterans,” the White House released in a statement.
Dennis Robinson says that the executive order is life changing for many qualifying veterans.
“We’ve gotten this way due to our service and things of that nature because some of us, our learning curve may be a little bit different, so it may take you a little bit longer,” said Dennis Robinson.
The Department of Education is in the process of identifying those disabled student loan borrowers eligible for a discharge through the Social Security Administration.
