A temporary relaxation of the requirements to qualify for the Public Service Loan Forgiveness program could save millions of borrowers billions of dollars—but few of those borrowers have so far accessed the potential benefits.

The situation offers an insight into the challenges of the student debt issue. Pragmatic solutions seem to gain little traction on social media and in the news.

The loan-forgiveness fights have attracted so much attention, and dragged on so bitterly for so long, in part because they inspire a deep ideological, almost religious, fervor. Demonstrators hold signs talking about a “jubilee” or debate the fairness, or unfairness, of transfers between people whose parents saved for college (or inherited enough to pay for it), those who couldn’t afford to go at all, and those who chose to finance the education with loans.

The reality of the Public Service Loan Forgiveness program is not an ideological or philosophical question of the introduction of a new program. It is, instead, more about nuts-and-bolts execution of an existing policy—in this case, a program that, in 2022, is still inviting applicants to transmit documents by fax and postal mail.

For teachers—as well as a broad array of public-service workers including social workers, firefighters, and many healthcare workers—the Public Service Loan Forgiveness program offers potential full forgiveness of student loans for those with a decade of service and loan payments. For most potentially eligible workers, however, the benefits have failed to materialize. Communication about program requirements was limited, producing confusion about which loans and payments qualified, while loan servicers provided misleading guidance and kept inadequate records.

A Department of Education administrative waiver set to expire on October 31, 2022, allows for massive retroactive adjustments in qualification requirements, making many public-service workers eligible for full forgiveness and, in some cases, refunds.