President Randy Weingern of the American Federation of Teachers will speak to the audience at the American Federation of Teachers’ annual conference held at the David L. Lawrence Convention Center in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania on Friday, July 13, 2018.
Jeff Swensen | Getty Images
The American Federation of Teachers filed a class action complaint with the Trump administration earlier this month in relation to its student loan policy.
AFT, a teachers’ union representing around 1.8 million members, says the U.S. Department of Education has denied student loan borrowers the legally necessary rights to affordable repayment plans and loan exemption programs. The class action effort was part of the AFT’s first legal action amendment against the Trump administration in March, and concerns government actions affecting student loan borrowers.
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The rear program accuss Trump officials of denying borrowers access to the borrower because they include borrower-led repayment plans, or IDRs. This links borrowers’ monthly bills to income, canceling debts after a certain period of time, or exempting public services, or the obligations of public servants and certain nonprofit workers.
“The department’s decision to withhold IDR and PSLF’s profits is to aggressively hurt borrowers,” reads the AFT filing.
The U.S. Department of Education did not respond to requests for comment.
Class actions after government data on backlogs
As part of AFT’s first legal challenge, the education department regularly shares data about the numerous borrowers waiting to access the IDR plans and PSLF.
Court records from mid-August show that over 1 million borrowers are trapped in the backlog of the IDR Plans application. Meanwhile, 72,730 people are awaiting their determination to become PSLF status.
“The backlog provides evidence that the U.S. Department of Education does not adequately meet the statutory requirements,” said higher education expert Mark Kantrowitz.
AFT’s amended complaints seeking class action status include several student loan borrowers affected by the Trump-era changes.
According to an AFT filing, one plaintiff owes about $198,000 in federal student loan obligations. The woman has been repaid for more than 25 years and “since May 2025, he has been ‘qualified to cancel the loan through the IDR program,” the filing said.
Another plaintiff, who owes about $756,000 in student debt, has been eligible for debt relief since around February, but has not yet received relief, according to filings.
Legal issues show that by the end of July more than 1.3 million applications for IDR plans were pending, but the education department has processed around 87,823 applications per month.
“At this rate, borrowers may have to wait years to receive the benefits that Congress has directed to provide them,” the backward declaration reads.
