LYNN — Students and parents joined Civic Nation and the office of U.S. Rep. Seth Moulton at North Shore Community College for a student-debt clinic.
Moulton said his office wants to make sure students in his district have all of the resources available to successfully pay back their loans.
“Quite literally, there are a lot of Americans whose educational debt is holding them back when they went to school to get ahead,” Moulton said. “As someone who came to Congress with student-loan debt, who still has some… this issue matters to me personally. And all across America, we have to figure out how to better tackle this problem.”
Jose de Leon-Angel, an aide from Moulton’s office, said this was the office’s first time hosting the seminar. He said the office’s goal is to provide more opportunities for residents to participate in these clinics across the district as the office evaluates their success.
He said there are a lot of students in the district who need help understanding how to pay their loans and are unable to reach the U.S. Department of Education for assistance.
“The Department of Education has unfortunately been very unresponsive at the time,” de Leon-Angel said.
Nancy Nierman, the assistant director of the Education Debt Consumer Assistance Program in New York, shared updates on national debt-relief options and walked attendees through the various repayment options. Volunteers from Civic Nation provided one-on-one assistance to attendees.
“We hope that at the end of this clinic, it’s gonna leave you with a better sense of how the student loan system works and what strategy you might be using to tackle your debt,” Nierman said.
