Boston Business Journal: BUSSW’s Claudio Martinez, BRIDGE & MSW Pathways Co-Director, Supports Protecting Professional Licenses from Loan Default
Currently, Massachusetts is one of many states that can deny, revoke, or refuse to renew any license if the holder defaults on a student loan. A new state law aims to stop this vicious cycle of debt and loss of employment, and BRIDGE/MSW Pathways Co-Director Claudio Martinez urges the Senate to pass the law in a recent op-ed to help address the student loan crisis.
Excerpt from, “Pass the Professional License Bill to Save Student-Loan Debt Holders” by Claudio Martinez, originally published in Boston Business Journal:
In spite of the extreme punitive nature of these laws and the zeal with which they were enforced, they proved to be quite ineffective. For instance, the Illinois Department of Financial and Professional Regulations couldn’t determine how much student loan debt has been recovered.
This mean-spirited and extremely punitive measure, directed, as it is, at the most vulnerable sections of our population — the low income, the young, and the perennially harassed communities of color, particularly black women — prompted a writer for the US News and World Report to poignantly ask, ‘If people are unable to work… how can they be expected to pay their debt?’”