You can be fired from a SC state job for student loan default. A new bill would nix that
A South Carolina representative has introduced a bill to repeal a law that prevents people with defaulted student loans from working state jobs.
The bill, introduced on Tuesday by Rep. Marvin Pendarvis, D-Charleston, comes less than a month after the Charleston County Sheriff’s Office fired its chief deputy, Joyce Smith, for defaulting on her student loans and failing to bring them back into good standing.
Under current state law, nobody who has defaulted on a student loan “shall now or hereafter be employed by the state or any of its departments, agencies or subdivisions until all defaults are cured and loan payments made current.”
“The question we have to ask ourselves is what has enforced the sheriff’s hand in having to make that decision,” Pendarvis said, according to WCBD News 2 in Charleston.
Pendarvis added that he wants to help other people across the state who might be facing hardship because of the student loan default law.
“It’s having a more detrimental impact on communities, people and their livelihoods,” Pendarvis told WCBD. “We have an obligation to make sure we are taking care of people.”
The problem of rising student loan costs has been a hot topic for some time. The Department of Education on Tuesday, under the direction of President Joe Biden’s administration, announced efforts to bring more than 3.6 million federal student loan borrowers at least three years closer to getting loan forgiveness through what’s called the income-driven repayment program.
And under Biden, in March more than 700,000 borrowers had their outstanding debt discharged.
Pendarvis has said he expects his bill to garner widespread support. However, it’s still unlikely to have enough time to pass into law this year since the current state legislative session is set to end in four weeks.
Besides Pendarvis, the bill is sponsored by other Charleston-area representatives, including JA Moore, Wendell Gilliard, Spencer Wetmore, Leon Stavrinakis and Deon Tedder.
This story was originally published April 20, 2022 at 10:11 AM.
