Public Service Loan Forgiveness 

and the Care Economy: 

Expanding Eligibility for 

Gender and Racial Equity 

Sara Partridge, Ph.D. 

Dr. N. Joyce Payne Center for Social Justice 

paynecenter.org
TABLE OF CONTENTS 

Expanding PSLF eligibility: Defining public service 

in the private sector ...............................................................................3 

For-profit care work in context.............................................................5 

Privatization of selected public service organization types .........6 

Public service work salaries by organization type ..........................8 

Race and gender in care work fields...................................................9 

Conclusion: Expanding eligibility to address future 

workforce demands .............................................................................. 12 
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I. EXPANDING PSLF ELIGIBILITY: DEFINING PUBLIC SERVICE IN 

THE PRIVATE SECTOR 

The U.S. Department of Education (ED) and representatives from key constituencies 

are currently engaged in negotiated rulemaking, a collaborative process the 

Department uses to revise federal education policies. One of the programs under 

consideration is the Public Service Loan Forgiveness (PSLF) program, which forgives 

student loan debt after ten years of employment in a public service profession. PSLF 

has long been beset by confusing guidelines and complex procedures that have 

prevented public service workers from attaining the forgiveness they were promised. 

Although the Department of Education announced a temporary waiver in October 

2021 that retroactively broadens forgiveness and current proposals aim to improve 

the program going forward, there are critical issues around eligibility that have to 

date not been adequately accounted for. 

Currently, PSLF is available to those who are directly employed by the government 

(a local, state, or federal agency) or by a non-profit organization. It defines an 

employee as “an individual who is hired and paid by a public service organization.”1 

It also extends forgiveness to employees of “private organizations” that provide 

qualifying “public services,” provided that the organization “is not a business 

organized for profit.”2 These qualifying public services are: 

Emergency management, military service, public safety, law enforcement, 

public interest law services, early childhood education (including licensed 

or regulated child care, Head Start, and State funded pre-kindergarten), 

public service for individuals with disabilities and the elderly, public health 

(including nurses, nurse practitioners, nurses in a clinical setting, and full-time 

professionals engaged in health care practitioner occupations and health 

care support occupations, as such terms are defined by the Bureau of Labor 

Statistics), public education, public library services, school library or other 

school-based services.3 

1 34 CFR § 685.219 

2 34 CFR § 685.219 

3 34 CFR § 685.219 
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The exclusion of workers who are classified as contractors or who are employed 

by for-profit entities excludes public service workers who demonstrably perform 

important public service work, often largely in the care economy. A significant 

number of workers in public service professions are also classified as independent 

contractors, particularly in the healthcare field. 

Research suggests that the private provision of public services and the independent 

contractor economy are both long-term trends that are likely to continue and even 

accelerate.4 Trends toward privatization and contract-based employment in these 

industries further heighten the need for the Department of Education to revise 

these guidelines to ensure this important program remains in-step with the rapidly 

changing modern economy. 

Therefore, the N. Joyce Payne Center for Social Justice at the Thurgood Marshall 

College Fund proposes: 

— Striking the provision that excludes for-profit businesses, given the significant 

proportions of healthcare, child care, eldercare, disability services, and other 

care workers employed by private sector companies, as illustrated in Table 1. It 

also recommends broadening “public education” to “education” more generally, 

to include education workers in the private non-profit and private for-profit 

sector. 

— Extending PSLF eligibility to full-time workers who work as independent 

contractors (those who file a 1099 tax form) with one or more qualifying 

organizations if they contract full-time with an organization that performs one 

of the qualifying public services listed above.5 

Modifying these two provisions will help to make access to loan forgiveness 

more equitable for people who perform similar roles at public and private sector 

organizations or who perform similar roles despite employment classification 

status. It will also help address racial and gender disparities in student loan 

burdens, as women and workers of color are overrepresented in many public service 

fields and more likely to be classified as contractors.6 

4 Sweet, J. (2021, August 12). The Context: The Gig Economy and the Future of Work. Harvard Magazine. Retrieved November 24, 2021, from https:// 

www.harvardmagazine.com/2021/08/the-context-the-gig-economy-and-the-future-of-work; The Privatization of the Health and Human Services: 

Parsing the Roles of the Public and Private Sectors. Rutgers School of Social Work, Retrieved November 24, 2021, from https://socialwork.rutgers. 

edu/news-events/news/people-politics-and-policy/privatization-health-and-human-services-parsing-roles.; Lim, K., Miller, A., Risch, M., & Wilking, 

E. (2019, July). Independent Contractors in the U.S.: New Trends from 15 years of Administrative Tax Data. IRS.gov. Retrieved November 24, 2021, from 

https://www.irs.gov/pub/irs-soi/19rpindcontractorinus.pdf. 

5 This paper does not propose extending PSLF eligibility to occupations beyond the listed qualifying public services. While it recommends 

including individuals who are classified as independent contractors, it does not recommend including those employed by organizations that serve 

as contractors for the government or non-profit entities. 

6 Dubal, Veena, The New Racial Wage Code (May 27, 2021). Harvard Law and Policy Review, 2021, UC Hastings Research Paper Forthcoming, 

Available at SSRN: https://ssrn.com/abstract=3855094 or http://dx.doi.org/10.2139/ssrn.3855094 
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While this paper focuses on care work industries due to both their size and their 

proportions of women and workers of color, the private-public and employment 

classification disparities should be eliminated in all qualifying professions. 

Protective services, emergency management, and public interest law, for example, 

have some labor segments that are either contract-based or organized as forprofit entities. This will create more equitable benefits for public service workers 

at different organizations and allow workers greater flexibility to move between 

organizations within their field. 

II. FOR-PROFIT CARE WORK IN CONTEXT 

Because of the United States’ unique history of privatizing the care work sector,7 

this is the largest and most important blind spot for the current PSLF eligibility 

rules. Services like child care, elder care, disability services, education, health 

care, and social work are central to a society’s health, wellbeing, and economic 

prosperity. As a result, many other countries have treated care work as a universal 

public benefit, rather than something that is provided to those who can afford it 

by the private market. While most high-income countries offer “a stronger universal 

public provision” for care work in the way that the U.S. offers public K-12 education, 

the U.S. “rel[ies] on market mechanisms for care service delivery.”8 Publicly-funded 

models tend to result in higher coverage and better labor protections, higher wages, 

better benefits, better training, and lower turnover. Although Congress is currently 

considering greater public investment in the care economy with the Build Back 

Better Act, several sectors have been largely served by for-profit organizations, as 

section III shows. 

Furthermore, the industries under consideration already have some scale of existing 

government investment or public provision of services. The childcare and eldercare 

industries, for example, are served by a mix of private and public providers. Public 

funding often helps subsidize these services for low-income families through 

programs such as Head Start or Medicaid support for long-term residential nursing 

care. In industries in which the government does not currently play a role, either 

through direct provision of services or contracting, the market evidently provides an 

effective and profitable solution for those public needs. 

7 Tuominen, M. (1991). Caring for Profit: The Social, Economic, and Political Significance of For-Profit Child Care. Social Service Review, 65(3), 

450–467. https://doi.org/10.1086/603857; Thomasson, M. A. (2002). From Sickness to Health: The Twentieth-Century Development of U.S. Health 

Insurance. Explorations in Economic History, 39(3), 233–253. https://doi.org/10.1006/exeh.2002.0788. 

8 International Labour Organization. (2018) Care Work and Care Jobs for the Future of Decent Work. ILO Publications, 202-3. Retrieved 24 

November 2021 from https://www.ilo.org/wcmsp5/groups/public/---dgreports/---dcomm/---publ/documents/publication/wcms_633135.pdf. 
6 paynecenter.org

Existing government support signals two realities about care work industries: first, 

that they are a public good and, second, that many operate as market failures.9 

Much of this work is labor-intensive, in-person, and individualized, which prevents it 

from being automated or outsourced and keeps costs high. Childcare, for example, 

costs between 30% and 102% of a minimum wage workers’ salary, depending on the 

state.10 This then creates a rational incentive for a caretaker to leave the formal 

workforce and provide this service directly. The broader positive externalities that 

care work enables beyond its immediate value, which society as a whole benefits 

from (e.g., allowing a parent to stay in the workforce vs. the hourly cost of care) also 

supports the nature of care work as a public good.11 

III. PRIVATIZATION OF SELECTED PUBLIC SERVICE 

ORGANIZATION TYPES 

The healthcare field relies heavily upon for-profit organizations to deliver care and 

thus likely excludes the largest number of public service workers under the current 

PSLF guidelines. 

— 24% of general medical and surgical hospitals are for-profit;12 as they employ 

about 5.6 million workers, this leaves 1.3 million ineligible for loan forgiveness.13 

— Physicians’ offices are at least 53.5% for-profit,14 leaving a workforce of about 1.4 

million ineligible. 

9 Suddath, C. (2021). How Child Care Became the Most Broken Business in America. Bloomberg Businessweek. Retrieved 24 November 2021, from 

https://www.bloomberg.com/news/features/2021-11-18/biden-s-build-back-better-wants-to-save-america-s-child-care-business. 

10 Paquette, D. (2015). The Staggering Cost of Daycare When YOu Make Only the Minimum Wage. Washington Post. Retrieved 24 November 2021, 

from https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/wonk/wp/2015/10/06/the-staggering-cost-of-daycare-when-you-make-only-the-minimum-wage/. 

11 International Labour Organization. (2018) Care Work and Care Jobs for the Future of Decent Work. ILO Publications, 174. Retrieved 24 November 

2021 from https://www.ilo.org/wcmsp5/groups/public/---dgreports/---dcomm/---publ/documents/publication/wcms_633135.pdf. 

12 Kaiser Family Foundation. (2019). Hospitals by Ownership Type. KFF.org. Retrieved 24 November 2021, from https://www.kff.org/other/stateindicator/hospitals-by-ownership/. 

13 All calculations for excluded workforce rely on total employment numbers from the BLS Occupational Employment and Wages Survey, May 

2020. Total employment numbers for the following industries are: General Medical and Surgical Hospitals (5,595,690); Offices of Physicians 

(2,592,040); Nursing Care Facilities (1,534,120); Home Health Care Services (1,493,990); Outpatient Care Centers (960,550). Source: U.S. Bureau of 

Labor Statistics. (2020). Occupational Employment and Wages, May 2020. BLS.gov. Retrieved 24 November 2021, from https://www.bls.gov/oes/ 

current/oes_stru.htm#29-0000. 

14 This data uses the percentage of physicians employed at privately-owned physicians offices as a proxy for the number of privately-owned 

physicians offices. It includes private practices and practices owned by private equity firms. The percentage may be greater as 30.5% of 

physicians’ offices are wholly or partially owned by hospitals, of which 24% are private. This figure (53.5%) is therefore a conservative estimate. 

Source: Kane, C. K. (2021). Recent Changes in Physician Practice Arrangements. American Medical Association. Retrieved 24 November 2021, from 

https://www.ama-assn.org/system/files/2021-05/2020-prp-physician-practice-arrangements.pdf. 
7 paynecenter.org

— Skilled nursing facilities, one of the largest providers of elder care and disability 

services, are 70% for-profit,15 leaving a workforce of over 1 million healthcare 

practitioners, technicians, and support service workers ineligible. 

— Outpatient care centers, which deliver a variety of ambulatory care services, are 

65% for-profit,16 excluding over 600,000 workers. 

— Finally, home health care services, which employ nurses, personal care aids, 

administrators, occupational therapists, and other support workers who in 

some states require some post-secondary education and/or licensing, are 80.6% 

private, leaving a workforce of 1.2 million ineligible.17 

Childcare and early childhood education (ECE) are other public service fields which 

have a significant proportion of for-profit providers. 

— While overall industry data is less readily available than for the healthcare field, 

the 2017 Economic Census counted 49,483 for-profit child day care service firms 

(within which it also included ECE firms), compared to 11,759 non-profit firms.18 

These for-profit firms employed 627,334 workers in 2017.19 

— 61% of three-year-olds and 28% of four-year-olds enrolled in ECE were enrolled in 

private centers.20 

While education, certification, and licensing requirements vary by state, many day 

care, ECE, and pre-kindergarten workers have education beyond high school.21 ECE 

in particular requires a bachelor’s degree and a certification in most states, and 

evidence overwhelmingly shows the benefits to children of receiving this more 

qualified level of care.22 

15 Kaiser Family Foundation. (2019). Nursing Facilities by Ownership Type. KFF.org. Retrieved 24 November 2021, from https://www.kff.org/other/ 

state-indicator/nursing-facilities-by-ownership-type/. 

16 This is an estimate for 2022 based on analysis of the growth of outpatient care services done by McKinsey & Co. in September 2020. Kumar, 

P. and Parthasarathy, R. (2020). Walking out of the hospital: The continued rise of ambulatory care and how to take advantage of it. McKinsey and 

Company. Retrieved 24 November 2021, from https://www.mckinsey.com/industries/healthcare-systems-and-services/our-insights/walking-out-ofthe-hospital-the-continued-rise-of-ambulatory-care-and-how-to-take-advantage-of-it . 

17 Data from 2016. Source: National Center for Health Statistics. (2015). Home Health Care. Centers for Disease Control. Retrieved 24 November 

2021, from https://www.cdc.gov/nchs/fastats/home-health-care.htm. 

18 Economic Census. (2017). All Sectors: Summary Statistics for the U.S., States, and Selected Geographies. United States Census Bureau. Retrieved 

24 November 2021, from https://data.census.gov/cedsci/table?q=economic%20census&n=62441&tid=ECNBASIC2017.EC1700BASIC. 

19 Economic Census. (2017). All Sectors: Summary Statistics for the U.S., States, and Selected Geographies. United States Census Bureau. 

Retrieved 24 November 2021, from https://data.census.gov/cedsci/table?q=economic%20census&n=62441&tid=ECNBASIC2017.EC1700BASIC. 

20 Friedman-Krauss, A.; Barnett, S.; Garver, K.; Hodges, K.; Weisenfeld, G. G.; and Gardiner, B. A. (2021). The State of Preschool 2020: State Preschool 

Yearbook. National Center for Education Research. Retrieved 24 November 2021, from https://nieer.org/wp-content/uploads/2021/08/YB2020_Full_ 

Report_080521.pdf . 

21 National Center on Early Childhood Quality Assurance. (2014). Trends in Family Child Care Home Licensing Regulations and Policies. 

Administration for Children and Families, Office of Child Care. Retrieved 24 November 2021, from https://childcareta.acf.hhs.gov/sites/default/ 

files/public/315_1511_fcch_licensing_trends_brief_2014_final_508_0.pdf. 

22 Schilder, D. (2016). Early Childhood Teacher Education Policies: Research Review and State Trends. Center on Enhancing Early Learning 

Outcomes. Retrieved 24 November 2021, from https://nieer.org/wp-content/uploads/2019/09/ceelo_policy_report_ec_teach_education_policies_ 

final_for_web_2016_04.pdf 
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Other specialized care centers similarly rely on high numbers of for-profit 

organizations to deliver these services. 

— There are about equal numbers of private non-profit and private for-profit 

residential mental health and substance abuse facilities, for example, at about 

2,000 firms each.23 

— There are about two times the number of for-profit outpatient mental health 

and substance abuse centers (4,433) as there are those with tax exempt status 

(2,178).24 

— Similarly, for-profit residential intellectual and developmental disability 

facilities (4,482) are double the number of those that are non-profit.25 

Together, the for-profit specialized centers listed here employ nearly 400,000 public 

workers who under current guidelines are excluded from loan forgiveness. 

IV. PUBLIC SERVICE WORK SALARIES BY ORGANIZATION TYPE 

One reason for the current eligibility divide between workers employed by 

government or non-profit organizations versus for-profit companies is the 

assumption that those working at private sector companies earn higher salaries. 

Because of the unique nature of the American public service economy described 

above, however, this assumption is not borne out in many industries. Data from the 

2003 National Compensation Survey shows that hourly wages were similar across 

organizational ownership types in both the healthcare and education sectors. 

Healthcare workers at for-profit hospitals actually had slightly lower hourly rates 

($19.26) than their counterparts at non-profit hospitals ($20.16).26 Registered nurses 

also earned lower salaries at for-profit hospitals, $25.58 per hour compared to 

23 Economic Census. (2017). All Sectors: Summary Statistics for the U.S., States, and Selected Geographies. United 

States Census Bureau. Retrieved 24 November 2021, from https://data.census.gov/cedsci/table?q=economic%20 

census&n=621420%3A622210%3A6222101%3A6222102%3A623210%3A623220%3A624120%3A624310&tid=ECNBASIC2017.EC1700BASIC&hidePreview=true 

24 Economic Census. (2017). All Sectors: Summary Statistics for the U.S., States, and Selected Geographies. United 

States Census Bureau. Retrieved 24 November 2021, from https://data.census.gov/cedsci/table?q=economic%20 

census&n=621420%3A622210%3A6222101%3A6222102%3A623210%3A623220%3A624120%3A624310&tid=ECNBASIC2017.EC1700BASIC&hidePreview=true 

25 Economic Census. (2017). All Sectors: Summary Statistics for the U.S., States, and Selected Geographies. United 

States Census Bureau. Retrieved 24 November 2021, from https://data.census.gov/cedsci/table?q=economic%20 

census&n=621420%3A622210%3A6222101%3A6222102%3A623210%3A623220%3A624120%3A624310&tid=ECNBASIC2017.EC1700BASIC&hidePreview=true 

26 Shahpoori, K. P. and Smith, J. (2005). Wages in Profit and Nonprofit Hospitals and Universities. U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics. Retrieved 29 

November 2021, from https://www.bls.gov/opub/mlr/cwc/wages-in-profit-and-nonprofit-hospitals-and-universities.pdf . 
9 paynecenter.org

 

$27.02 per hour. Most other healthcare support and technical occupations had 

similar salaries across hospitals of different ownership types.27 The survey found 

that the pay rates at government hospitals ($18.71) were similar to those in for-profit 

hospitals, and lower than non-profit hospitals.28 

The survey found similar trends in for-profit higher education, where “hourly earnings 

for all college and university teachers were nearly identical, regardless of whether 

they worked in private for-profit universities or in private not-for-profit universities.”29 

The hourly rate for all staff at private for-profit universities ($28.45) was slightly 

higher than for those at private non-profit ($26.21) and public universities ($25.37). 

This overview of data from the healthcare and higher education industries 

suggests that public service salaries do not differ significantly across organization 

ownership types and, in some cases, may in fact be lower at for-profit companies. 

V. RACE AND GENDER IN CARE WORK FIELDS 

Furthermore, recognizing the private-sector workers in these fields as public 

servants is a matter of gender and racial equity. It is particularly because of the 

historical reliance upon the unpaid or underpaid work of women, girls, and people of 

color that the government has been slow to provide public access to these services 

and the private sector has been able to offer market solutions based on very low 

wages, minimal protections, and job instability. Care work has historically been 

provided by women, girls, extended family, and community members; as women’s 

workforce participation increased over recent decades—and in the absence of 

public programs—families have increasingly outsourced this type of work to private 

agencies.30 In recent decades, with the increased labor force participation of 

women, the unpaid domestic labor of women and girls has been replaced largely by 

the low-paid work of immigrants and people of color—most of whom are women.31 

Women, Black, Asian and Latino/a workers remain overrepresented in many care 

work fields, as Table 1 shows. 

27 Shahpoori, K. P. and Smith, J. (2005). 

28 Shahpoori, K. P. and Smith, J. (2005). 

29 Shahpoori, K. P. and Smith, J. (2005). 

30 Bookman, A. and Kimbrel, D. (2011). Families and Elder Care in the Twenty-First Century. Future of Children, Princeton University. Retrieved 24 

November 2021, from https://files.eric.ed.gov/fulltext/EJ944934.pdf. 

31 Sassen, S. (2008). “Strategic Gendering in the Global Division of Labor.” Two stops in today’s new Global geographies: shaping novel labor 

supplies and employment regimes. United Nations Publication. Retrieved 24 November 2021, from 

https://repositorio.cepal.org/bitstream/handle/11362/5815/1/S0800399_en.pdf 
10 paynecenter.org

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The concentration of Black, Latino, Asian, and women student loan borrowers 

in essential public service and care work professions makes reforming the PSLF 

program an even more urgent equity issue. For example, while 14.2% of the American 

population is Black and 18.4% is Latino, home health care workers are 37.4% Black 

and 25.4% Latino.32 Community and social service fields like substance abuse 

counseling, child and family social work, and healthcare social work range from 

25 to 30% Black and 15 to 20% Latino.33 Childcare workers are approximately 16.1% 

Black and 21.6% Latino.34 Fully extending loan forgiveness to workers in the care 

economy—a benefit open to other public service professions—is therefore evidently 

a matter of gender and racial equity. 

TABLE 1. GENDER AND RACE IN SELECTED PUBLIC SERVICE OCCUPATIONS 

Occupation 

Total employed 

(thousands) Women Black Asian Hispanic 

Community and social service 

occupations (overall) 2,717 

Child, family, and school social workers 62 89.8 26.8 0.6 21.3 

Counselors, all other 225 68.2 18.3 3.7 15.2 

Healthcare social workers 78 87 20.3 8.2 9.2 

Mental health counselors 138 72.9 9.4 2 14 

Other community and social service 

specialists 100 77.6 30.4 3.3 12.7 

Probation officers and correctional 

treatment specialists 105 50.7 26.9 0.7 12.8 

Social and community service 

managers 424 72.5 18.3 2.1 10.3 

Social and human service assistants 230 79.6 18.9 3.2 14.9 

Social workers, all other 673 85.4 25.7 3.7 15 

Substance abuse and behavioral 

disorder counselors 130 81.3 25.4 1.7 16.8 

Education, training, and library 

occupations (overall) 8,902 

Bus drivers, school 201 58.5 21.5 1.9 7.9 

Childcare workers 928 94.8 16.1 3.8 21.6 

Postsecondary teachers 1,156 51.1 6.5 11.2 6.2 

32 U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics. (2020). Household Data: 11. Employed persons by detailed occupation, sex, race, and Hispanic or Latino 

ethnicity. Labor Force Statistics from the Current Population Survey. Retrieved 24 November 2021, from https://www.bls.gov/cps/cpsaat11.htm. 

33 U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics. (2020). Household Data: 11. Employed persons by detailed occupation, sex, race, and Hispanic or Latino 

ethnicity. Labor Force Statistics from the Current Population Survey. Retrieved 24 November 2021, from https://www.bls.gov/cps/cpsaat11.htm. 

34 U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics. (2020). Household Data: 11. Employed persons by detailed occupation, sex, race, and Hispanic or Latino 

ethnicity. Labor Force Statistics from the Current Population Survey. Retrieved 24 November 2021, from https://www.bls.gov/cps/cpsaat11.htm. 
11 paynecenter.org

.. .. 

.. + 

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+ 

+ 

+ 

+ 

Occupation 

Total employed 

(thousands) Women Black Asian Hispanic 

Preschool and kindergarten teachers 535 98.8 12 2.2 15.3 

Secondary school teachers 963 58.8 7.7 3 8.9 

Special education teachers 332 80.1 7.2 1.8 8.9 

Healthcare practitioners and technical 

occupations (overall) 9,559 

Emergency medicine physicians 17 - - - -

Nurse practitioners 218 88 9.1 3.2 6.3 

Occupational therapists 124 86.3 4 7.4 6.5 

Other physicians 929 40.6 8.5 22 8.8 

Physical therapists 281 67.2 5.2 15 4.4 

Registered nurses 3,256 87.4 13.4 8.7 7.9 

Speech-language pathologists 195 94.4 6.6 3.6 8.5 

Emergency medical technicians 141 33.7 11.9 4 11.4 

Dietetic technicians and ophthalmic 

medical technicians 66 73.5 27.6 2.1 5.3 

Licensed practical and licensed 

vocational nurses 596 90 25.6 2.9 15.3 

Medical records specialists 183 95.9 16.1 1.7 13.2 

Miscellaneous health technologists 

and technicians 185 61.7 24.8 15.3 13.5 

Healthcare support occupations 

(overall) 4,790 

Ambulance drivers and attendants, 

except emergency medical technicians 10 - - - -

Home health aides 571 90.3 37.4 5 25.4 

Medical assistants 561 90.2 17.4 4 27.9 

Nursing assistants 1,364 89.3 35.2 4.7 13.7 

Orderlies and psychiatric aides 55 57.5 37.2 1.2 8.7 

Other healthcare support workers 147 61.1 23.6 7.1 23.6 

Personal care aides 1,282 81.5 22.2 9.4 21.4 

Physical therapist assistants and aides 78 71.7 3.7 5.8 
12 paynecenter.org

 

VI. CONCLUSION: EXPANDING ELIGIBILITY TO ADDRESS 

FUTURE WORKFORCE DEMANDS 

 In addition to remedying existing inequities in the PSLF program, expanding 

eligibility to for-profit entities will help to address labor shortages in important 

sectors of the workforce that are projected to have strong future growth. Eldercare, 

childcare, and social work are expected to be a growing segment of the national 

economy in the coming decades.35 Home health and personal care aides, for 

example, are projected to be the fastest-growing occupation through 2030, with a 

1,129.9% increase over 2020.36 Registered nurses follow closely behind as the sixthfastest growing occupation at a 276.8% increase, while medical and health service 

managers, medical assistants, nursing assistants, and nurse practitioners all fall 

within the top 30 growing occupations.37 

Expanding loan forgiveness eligibility will make these career pathways more 

attractive to workers and help to address potential future labor shortages. It will 

also make the trends in increased levels of education and credentialing for public 

service workers more sustainable.38 Because the movement toward privatization 

and independent contractor employment status in the U.S. economy are expected 

to accelerate in the future, updating the employment categories eligible for loan 

forgiveness will contribute to the ongoing development of a robust public service 

sector. 

35 Charlton, E. (2021). 40% of all projected job opportunities will be created in this sector. And it’s not technology. World Economic Forum. 

Retrieved 29 November 2021, from https://www.weforum.org/agenda/2021/05/care-economy-emerging-job-opportunities/. 

36 U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics. (2021). Table 1.3 Fastest growing occupations, 2020 and projected 2030. Retrieved 29 November 2021, from 

https://www.bls.gov/emp/tables/fastest-growing-occupations.htm. 

37 U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics. (2021). Table 1.3 Fastest growing occupations, 2020 and projected 2030. Retrieved 29 November 2021, from 

https://www.bls.gov/emp/tables/fastest-growing-occupations.htm. 

38 Consumer Financial Protection Bureau. (2017). Staying on Track While Giving Back The cost of student loan servicing breakdowns for people 

serving their communities, 1-2. Retrieved 24 November 2021, from https://www.consumerfinance.gov/data-research/research-reports/staying-trackwhile-giving-back-cost-student-loan-servicing-breakdowns-people-serving-their-communities/. 
DR. N • .JOYCE PAYNE 

tHUiii,Ji11,JiHHm1J11iilHI THURGOOD MARSHALL COLLEGE FUND 

Dr. N. Joyce Payne Center 

For Social Justice Mission: 

To advance academic research focused on social 

justice from Historically Black Colleges and 

Universities and advocate for fair, data-driven, public 

policies that strive for racial, economic, political, 

and social justice. 

Contact Info 

paynecenter.org 

713-987-4485 

rob.cline@tmcf.org 

901 F Street NW, Suite 700 

Washington, DC 20004