NJ plan to woo teachers by wiping out their loan debt is a hit
By: Mary Ann Koruth
NorthJersey.com
USA Today Network - New Jersey
..... Nearly 170 New Jersey public school teachers are seeing their student loans paid off through a three-year-old program crated to address a statewide teacher shortage in districts where student performance is lagging.
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North Jersey teachers from Cliffside Park, Paterson, Prospect Park and Garfield are among those participating in the program. Application for the coming year are now closed.
..... The Teacher Loan Redemption Program, created in 2021, repays up to $20,000 in student loan debt over a four-year period, with a maximum of $5,000 repaid each year for those who qualify. Loan redemption payments equal 25% of the principal and interest of eligible student loan expenses.
..... The state Higher Education Student Assistance Authority runs the program. The most recent round of applications was funded with a $5 million appropriation.
..... Applicants must be residents of New Jersey, teaching in a qualifying subject and school, with a teaching certification from the state Department of Education.
..... They must also be teaching i high-need subject areas where there is a scarcity of teachers. The state identifies subject areas where the shortage of teachers is strongest. For the 2025-2026 year, these are English as a second language, bilingual education, world languages, mathematics, science, special education and specific subjects in career and technical education.
..... The program had only tow participants in its first year, the 2023 fiscal year, likely beaus it limited approvals to borrowers with NJCLASS loans, another college financing program run by HESAA.
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The state expanded the applicant pool to include other types of loans in the following years, and many more people applied for the program than were admitted. Between 2023 and 2025, 580 applicants did not qualify.
..... Applicants who were not accepted into the NJ Teacher Loan Redemption Program in fiscal year 2024 and 2025 did not qualify for the program, in most cases because they either did not teach within ineligible school, did not teach a high-need subject identified by the state, or did not submit the required documents.
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Teachers have to be hired on or after January 1, 2009 to teach in a high-need field and must not have defaulted on student loans in order to qualify for the program, according to information made available by HESAA.
..... Federal NJCLASS, and private student loans used for the actual costs paid for tuition and reasonable education and living expenses related to obtaining a degree are eligible for redemption according to HESAA.