College Loan Forgiveness

Phil called last night to see if we were going to apply for the college loan forgiveness program that President Biden had just announced.  I told him that we definitely had been following the news and I had already signed up for email alerts from the Department of Education so that we would know when to apply.  I also explained to him how fortunate we were to actually even have been given a loan.  Until the summer of 2020 we had never qualified for any type of subsidized loan from the government.  

That changed for us after IU cancelled in person classes because of the lockdown in March of 2020.  Shortly after they had sent their college students home for the semester, we received information from Indiana University regarding the Cares Act.  IU had decided to take the money that they had received from the federal government due to the pandemic and help students who had been affected financially by the situation.  As Doug had lost 25% of his salary due to cutbacks at work, we decided to apply.  We didn't really expect anything, but since our college costs had not changed and we still had to pay rent on Cal's house all while suffering a financial loss, we thought that we would try.  Cal, Meg and I filled out the necessary paperwork explaining our situation.  We were completely surprised a few days later when we heard  that Cal would be receiving $1500 to help pay for his rent in Bloomington and a refund of $200 for his cafeteria plan.  It took longer to hear back about Meg, but in the end IU gave her a loan to take summer classes.  As she didn't really have any other plans for the summer of Covid, she decided to take advantage of the loan and get ahead on her studies.  We were very appreciative of the help and completely surprised when they offered Meg a loan to do the same thing during the summer of 2021 allowing her to stay in Bloomington and take I-Core.  By taking classes those two summers, Meg would be able to graduate a year early which was also great news and would help reduce our overall college expenses for her.

As I hung up the phone after talking to Phil, I thought a lot about his last statement,  "I don't care side of the political fence that you are on right now.  If this money is being offered, take full advantage of it."  I was happy to hear him say that as so many people on social media had been absolutely blasting the loan forgiveness announcement.  The statement, "I had to pay for my college, so should you" was everywhere.  I decided not to care about what other people thought and just be thankful for the $10,000 help.  I was sure that most people didn't realize how expensive education costs were right now.  By the time Cameron graduates from college, we will have paid over $600,000 in total for all four of the Heinisch children even with the academic scholarships that they had received. Criticizing families like us for getting back 2% of our total cost seemed very insensitive.

I also made sure when I talked to Phil to let him know that we have never regretted helping pay for our children's college costs.  We knew that we were helping them get a "best foot forward" in the game of life by doing so.  We appreciated that they worked hard in school and also had a part time jobs to help. It wasn't always easy to come up with the cash over the years, but our family made it work.  I still drive a 2006 Civic as I don't have extra money for a new car until Meg graduates.  Doug and I decided not to travel as a couple to save money, but have enjoyed the many trips with our children over the years.  I use coupons, rebates, shop at Aldi's and do everything I can to save money so that they could start life easier than Doug and I did.  He and I began with nothing as Doug had to pay for his last year of college, buy a car and even pay rent at home before we got married.  We didn't want them to feel the stress of starting life that way even if it was hard to follow such a strict budget for over ten years.  

There were many times that I wished that I had had someone in my life that could have given me financial help for our children's education expenses the way that Dorothy did for Doug's family.  I know that the six of us would have really appreciated that.  Wishing it would never make it true, however, so I will instead be happy with the knowledge that working this hard these past ten years has completely made us all appreciate the loan forgiveness program.  I definitely do not need to understand delayed gratification to know that Meg graduating debt free just like Brett and Cal did is a very nice feeling.