- Are you a social work student with concerns about your ability to pay back your loans?
- Are you a social worker that is struggling to pay off your student loan debt?
- Are you a citizen who relies on social workers to deliver care to you or your family?
Please click the links to the right to learn about HB 2407 and how it may impact you.
Please leave a brief comment explaining why this issue is important to you. Your story will raise awareness and help others to hear the voices of real people that will be affected by this important legislation. Also please take a moment to participate in the polls to the right. Thanks!
You can also make your voice heard by contacting your legislator; you can look up their contact information here: http://www.leg.state.or.us/findlegsltr
I'm very concerned about this issue. I'm making a major investment in my education to become an MSW (almost $40,000). In addition I have a great deal of debt from my undergraduate education. I wonder if retirement will ever be a possibility for me?
ReplyDeleteBecause I love the work I do, I've continued to push ahead with the hope that the situation will improve and I can either get help repaying my loans or that social worker positions will receive better pay in the future.
The work that social workers do is so necessary for the people in our communities. I've worked with children in our foster care system, addictions, and with children and adolescents in mental health treatment. The people needing our services will not go away.
ReplyDeleteI will owe over $40,000 in student loans when I complete my MSW. I know the need for social workers will always be there, but the financial reality I am facing is daunting. Compassion, patience, and optimism are skills I will need to count on in order to meet the financial and emotional challenges in my future.
I will owe over 40 grand also and agree that the financial reality of graduating with that much debt is daunting. Especially, when the average annual incomes for a social worker is around $40,000! Thanks for taking on the cause!
ReplyDeleteI have been working as an MSW for the last 1 1/2 years and find my job to be immensely rewarding.
ReplyDeleteI find it extremely difficult, however, to reconcile the benefits of this work to both myself and my community with the enormous debt that I have incurred in order to do the work that I love.
Between my undergraduate and graduate education, I owe over $50,000 in student loans. I have a job that pays well by social work standards, and yet I still struggle with economic hardships due to my student loan debt.
HB 2407 would have a very real and very important impact on my life, financial security, and ability to continue doing this important work.
I have been working with my MSW degree for 1 1/2 years. I took three years to complete the program and have $60,000 in student loan debt. I have a family and am unable to afford my student loan payments which are over 1000.00 a month. It has caused an extreme financial hardship.
ReplyDeleteI love the work I do, and feel social work is my true calling in life. I want to be able to practice my calling and support my family at the same time.
HB 2407 would have a critical impact on my life and the lives of my two children.
I am currently in school and will have loan debt that will well exceed $50,000 once I am out of school. It is daunting to think about having to pay that money back on the income that social workers typically have.
ReplyDeleteFor a profession that is so important to our community it is hard to believe that it has so little value to our community. Looking at the graphs, it was appalling to realize that debt is only getting bigger and incomes are actually decreasing.
Something needs to be done, HB2407 is a great start for our state government to acknowledge that social workers are important and show their commitment to reinvesting in the profession of social work and all that we do.
I am a social work student who will be graduating this spring. Due the economic
ReplyDeleterecession, job opportunities are looking slim, and I am extremely worried about how I
will begin paying back my loans. Like most other social workers, I chose this profession
because I genuinely and passionately care about helping others.
Social workers need big shoulders to do the work they do, but having such looming
financial debt makes being a good social worker difficult.
Having so much loan debt will also have a serious impact on my future in regard to
raising a family, owning a home someday, and being able to eventually retire when I'm
older.
HB 2407 will not only impact my life now, but also my future.
I will have 40,000 in debt upon graduation from my MSW program. When I graduate I want to work with those in the most need, and I am afraid that because of this financial burden, I will have to compromise and work instead with those with the most resources, a catch twenty-two for anyone deeply committed to this work.
ReplyDeleteI have been in the field of social work for about 9 years, and I know I am doing my life's work. I believe in social work because I believe in community, social justice, hope and healing, and the right to dignity ad respect. Social workers support the most vulnerable people in our communities, and the work we do and the clients we help are so important -- for all of us.
ReplyDeleteI knew when I chose social justice/social work as a path, I would not make a lot of money. However, once I've completed my MSW, I will be over $50,000 in debt to student loans (including undergraduate). This is an injustice. Our work is already undervalued and underpaid, because we work to support undervalued and underpaid populations. This bill is important, because any relief will help to keep us in the field -- a field that needs hope to be sustainable. I don't want to be wealthy, I just want to be able to pay my rent.
I made the decision to go into Social Work, based on the work I was doing in the community, working with those people who were most vulnerable. I wanted to do more. So, I went back to school to pursue an MSW. Now I am overwhelmed by the reality of my educational loans. When I graduate, I will not be able to go back and serve the same vulnerable population, and pay off my student debt. In order to responsibly repay my loans, I will need to take a higher paying job; turning my back on those who need my services the most.
ReplyDeleteI am have been a social worker for the past 15 years of my life. I love everything about it except the median income associated with this type of work.
ReplyDeleteBesides improving upon my skill set and knowledge base as a social worker, I know that having a MSW allows me to be more marketable in the long term to get a better paying position in this field or the flexiblity to leave it if necessary. I really hope I do not need to leave it someday to get more of a liveable wage and to pay off my student debt.
Between my undergraduate degree and my MSW I currently owe $55,000 in school loans.
Wow...every comment I have read has hit the nail on the head. We as social workers are very much needed in the world. Social workers are in the private and non-profit industry and yet we are underpaid especially in non-profit. I have incurred over $60,000 in debt which includes my undergrad and second term in grad school. I'm afraid that I won't be able to even work in the non-profit field of social work after I receive my degree if I am not eligible for loan forgiveness. Private industry is cool but being in the trenches with the underserved and target populations is where I want to be. Who will help make our country healthy if we get discouraged with our financial situations. When we are discouraged our families suffer and so does the community.
ReplyDeleteThe last comment resonates strongly with me. The idea of time/head space being clogged with worries about financial situations negatively impacts the social worker directly, their families, their client, and consequently their community.
ReplyDeleteThe work we do is essential and heavily relied on by our communities. If we were not losing sleep and worried about our finanacial situations we would have the ability to put more energy into our much needed work.
Plus, I have personally know several exceptional social workers who have left the field to secure a more lucrative position in order to survive and free up more income from educational debt. These individuals would have been an asset to our profession that we have lost.
I am so thankful that someone is taking this on. My undergraduate degree is in Education, where if you choose to teach in a school district with a high percentage of low income children your student loans are excused. Back in the 80's when there was a lack of teachers, this helped attract students to Education and they were able to do the work their heart wanted them to do, but their pocket book hadn't allowed. It is time for Social Workers to receive that same kind of benefit, as we work with that same vulnerable population and willingly accept a wage that is not commensurate with holding an advanced degree. Thank you Paul and everyone else who is working to make this bill a reality.
ReplyDeleteI'm a social worker who has worked in the field of child abuse and neglect for several years. I decided to pursue my MSW in order to learn how to best serve my vulnerable clients in a very difficult, overwhelmingly stressful and undervalued job. Even though I chose to sign a contract committing me to work for the state for 2 years after I graduate in return for $6,000/year toward my tuition, I will STILL be more than $30,000 in debt from my education when I graduate! Social workers do not get enough recognition from the community for the difficult and much needed work we do, and for us to have so much financial trouble in return for that work is truly an injustice. Relieving our student loans will have a huge positive impact on those of us who serve the most vulnerable members of our community.
ReplyDeleteI am graduating this spring with my MSW and will owe over $40,000 for my graduate education. I love the work I do, but am very scared of the prospect of paying back this debt, knowing that the salary for a social worker is not very high. Student loan relief for social workers is imperative to continue to recruit new students into a profession that has very high need, as well as to retain current professionals in the field. Social workers do not enter the field to make money. They become social workers because they are passionate about the work they do. Please help us continue to do this great work.
ReplyDeleteI agree with the above comment. I will graduate with my MSW in June of 2010, and the prospect of repaying the student loans I have accumulated is daunting. I chose this profession not for the money I will make, but for the people I will serve. So although I am not expecting to become wealthy, I do not want to be stuck under the weight of my student loans for years and years to come. Please pass this bill and help us continue to serve people in need.
ReplyDelete