# What This Bill Does

This bill makes a change to how the government treats certain international teaching programs when it comes to student loan forgiveness. Specifically, it says that if you participate in a Fulbright Teacher Exchange Program or the Fulbright English Teaching Assistant Program, that time should count as working in public service for the purposes of loan forgiveness.

Here's what that means in practical terms: The government has a program that forgives federal student loans for people who work in public service jobs—like teachers, social workers, government employees, and nonprofit workers—after they make payments for a certain number of years. Right now, if you go abroad to teach English or participate in a teacher exchange program through Fulbright, that time doesn't count toward loan forgiveness, even though you're doing educational work. This bill would change that by treating Fulbright teaching positions the same way the government treats other public service jobs.

The impact would be on Americans who have federal student loans and want to participate in these prestigious international teaching programs. Instead of having to choose between pursuing a Fulbright opportunity and making progress toward loan forgiveness, they could do both. The time spent teaching abroad would count toward the years needed to have their remaining loans forgiven. This could make these programs more attractive to people with student debt, since they wouldn't have to sacrifice their loan repayment progress to participate in international educational exchange.

To amend the Higher Education Act of 1965 to allow participation in certain Fulbright programs to qualify for the repayment plan for public service employees, and for other purposes.