Fulbright Teaching Time Now Counts Toward Student Loan Forgiveness for Educators

The new Fulbright Teachers Loan Forgiveness Act is a short, punchy piece of legislation that clarifies a major win for educators with student debt. Essentially, it takes time spent in two specific, high-profile international teaching programs—the Fulbright Teacher Exchange Program and the Fulbright English Teaching Assistant Program—and officially categorizes it as "public service job" time.

The Fine Print That Pays Off

For anyone chasing the Public Service Loan Forgiveness (PSLF) program, this is a big deal. PSLF is the federal program that cancels the remaining balance on Direct Loans after you’ve made 120 qualifying monthly payments while working full-time for a qualifying employer. Before this bill, whether time spent abroad in a Fulbright program counted toward those 120 payments was often a confusing, bureaucratic headache. Section 2 of this Act cuts through that confusion, stating clearly that participation in those two Fulbright programs is equivalent to working a qualifying public service job.

A Clear Path for Globally Minded Teachers

Think of a teacher, maybe a high school history instructor, who has $40,000 in student loans and is five years into their PSLF journey. If they take a year off to participate in the Fulbright Teacher Exchange—perhaps teaching in Germany or South Korea—that year wasn't guaranteed to count toward their forgiveness clock. Now, under this Act, that year of international experience is officially logged as 12 qualifying payments. This removes a major financial barrier for teachers who want to participate in these valuable cultural exchange programs but couldn't afford to pause their progress toward loan cancellation. It makes pursuing international teaching and cultural exchange a financially viable option, rather than a debt setback, for educators already committed to public service.