We are asking MOHELA to institute a policy of loan forgiveness when the student dies prior to graduation, rather than expecting repayment from family members.
Why is this important?
Our son, Nick, passed away unexpectedly, two months before he was set to graduate, after five years of engineering school. His life was just beginning at 24 years of age.
He was an honor roll student and employed as a writing center tutor, helping other students with their papers. He was selected to attend the Undergraduate Research Day at the Missouri Capitol to share his research on space trash with lawmakers. He worked very hard at everything he tried.
Because Nick was considered out-of-state his first two years in college, tuition was very high and we had to take out additional cash loans thru MOHELA, Missouri Higher Education Loan Authority. These loans were taken out for the 2006-2007 school years and interest accumulates daily. We have contacted MOHELA repeatedly and escalated the matter, to see if these loans could be forgiven but they will not budge. Retired and on a fixed income, we should not have to worry about how we are going to repay such large sums of money.
We recently read about other families that have been in this same situation through the online petition process and SignOn.org. Because light was shed on this issue, Citibank has changed their status and has agreed to forgive student debt, when the student has died. As of January 2011, CITI made a policy change where any death of a primary borrower would be forgiven upon receipt of the death certificate and review of the case. Could MOHELA do the right thing and change their policy?
MOHELA should institute a policy change of student loan forgiveness when the student dies and stop going after family members.
Please help by signing this petition. To make a difference, we need as many signatures as possible, so please share this petition with all of your friends or post it to Facebook.
