The American Federation of Teachers filed a class action lawsuit against the Trump administration’s Department of Education, claiming that Secretary Linda McMahon has unlawfully obstructed student loan forgiveness for numerous borrowers who meet qualification requirements. The case, titled Weingarten v. McMahon, was filed in U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia and names AFT President Randi Weingarten as the lead plaintiff, alongside other union members and public service workers.
The Public Service Loan Forgiveness program, established in 2007, permits certain employees of not-for-profit organizations and government agencies to have their federal student loans canceled after 120 qualifying payments, typically completed over a 10-year period. The Biden administration expanded the program’s accessibility, resulting in loan forgiveness for over 1 million borrowers. The lawsuit specifically targets the administration’s handling of the PSLF Buyback program, which enables borrowers who have completed 120 months of qualifying employment to retroactively receive credit for months previously lost due to forbearance or deferment.
According to court filings, approximately 88,000 borrowers had pending buyback applications as of earlier this year, with the Trump administration allegedly failing to process these requests promptly. Additionally, the plaintiffs claim that the Department of Education arbitrarily reduced their payment count credits without notification, effectively extending the timeline for loan forgiveness eligibility.
The Education Department responded by stating that recent program adjustments address “coding errors” introduced during the previous administration that resulted in inaccurate payment counts for certain borrowers. Department officials asserted their commitment to properly crediting all qualifying payments to borrower accounts.
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