You don’t go into public service work for the money.
Matt Sembach and Malissa Williams worked as a public defender and a nurse, respectively — careers that require years of schooling.
They’re passionate about their jobs in the public sector, and the promise of student-loan forgiveness was an added bonus.
“I felt compelled to serve the public,” Sembach told Business Insider. “I worked long hours with a ton of stress to ensure that my clients received not only adequate representation, but superb representation, because I knew that their lives were on the line and it was important to them. So it was important to me.”
Both Sembach and Williams hold 6-figure student-loan balances from their educations. They’re counting on the Public Service Loan Forgiveness program, which relieves student debt for government and nonprofit workers after 10 years of qualifying payments.
The program, which started in 2007, has wiped out billions of dollars in debt over the past few years, but changes are looming. President Donald Trump signed an executive order in March calling on the education secretary to redefine what “public service” is to ensure that qualifying employers are not engaging in what the administration deems as “anti-American” activities, like discrimination, violations of federal immigration law, or services related to hormone changes or gender transitioning.
The Department of Education published its proposed rule on August 18 and acknowledged that some borrowers would not receive credit toward forgiveness if their employer was ruled ineligible.
“While this may delay or prevent forgiveness for a subset of borrowers, the overall design of the regulations—including advance notice, transparency around determinations, and employer recertification pathways—helps mitigate unexpected harm,” the rule said.
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Now, borrowers like Sembach and Williams are attempting to navigate repayment amid changes from the administration, with their sights set on loan forgiveness.
A surge in student-loan payments and an interrupted timeline to relief
Williams, 40, has $127,000 in student debt — which she started paying off in 2006 — from her associate’s, bachelor’s, master’s, and doctorate degrees. She’s putting those degrees to use as a full-time nurse at a private university.
Having made payments for over a decade, Williams should qualify for relief through PSLF. However, she was enrolled in the SAVE income-driven repayment plan, which has been blocked since last summer due to legal challenges. In the meantime, her loans were put on forbearance, and payments during that time did not qualify for PSLF progress.
Without SAVE, her monthly bill spiked to $925 from $155. She has no choice but to make that payment, hoping it’ll get her back on track toward PSLF.
“I’ll sell a kidney. I don’t mind ramen noodles. I’m not financially at that point yet, but if it’s four months of this payment, it’s really going to start to hurt,” Williams said.
Courtesy of Malissa Williams
Now, Williams is navigating the PSLF buyback process, which allows borrowers who have made 120 qualifying payments to “buy back” months spent in deferment or forbearance to earn PSLF credit. She needs to buy back four payments at her new, higher amount.
A new court filing from the Department of Education said that, as of July 31, there is a 72,730-person backlog of buyback forms.
“I’m a nurse who worked through COVID, who didn’t leave the bedside during COVID, and I’m struggling to even pay a student loan bill,” Williams said. “Everyone, including me, is just doing things to try to make these payments as quick as possible and just to get out of it before you can’t get out of it.”
High interest rates mean barely making a dent in a 6-figure balance
Sembach, who previously served as a chief deputy public defender and now works for the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania, is set to receive PSLF relief on his $263,000 balance in September 2026.
He has never been opposed to paying off what he borrowed; the problem, he said, is the high interest rate, which makes it difficult to make even a dent in his original balance. Interest rates on federal loans are fixed based on the year the loan was first taken out, and they are highest for graduate and professional student loans. Direct unsubsidized loans for that category now stand at 7.94%, slightly above Sembach’s 7.88% rate.
“It’s very daunting and it almost feels like you’re swimming against the current, but the current is incredibly strong because you know that what you’re paying in isn’t making a bit of difference and that the money continues to accrue against you,” Sembach said. “So it’s also very disheartening.”
Courtesy of Matt Sembach
Sembach pays $374.60 a month on an income-based repayment plan. He said it’s a burden, but he knows it’s what he signed up for and that it’s his responsibility to continue making those payments. At the same time, he also went into public service with PSLF’s promise of loan forgiveness in mind, and he’s worried that Trump’s proposed changes could get in the way of that relief.
While a processing backlog could impede Sembach’s relief timeline, he remains on track to receive loan forgiveness unless his employer runs into challenges with the Trump administration. It’s unclear which specific employers the administration would target should its proposals be finalized; the rules said that employers would also have an opportunity to submit an appeal should they be deemed ineligible for PSLF. Sembach based his financial planning on the anticipation of relief, and he hopes it can come to fruition when he completes his qualifying payments in a year.
“I went into this 15 years ago with this understanding that if I did what I was supposed to do, stay in public service, help and provide services for the community, that would get this relief,” he said.