A instructor paid $135,901 final yr who had scholar debt forgiven was the “honored” visitor of U.S. Rep. Ayanna Pressley on the State of the Union deal with.
That instructor, who additionally owns a house in Dedham along with her husband assessed in Zillow on-line data at about $1 million, was given $117,000 in scholar debt reduction, Pressley says in a press launch.
“Priscilla is a first generation American, a proud union educator with Boston Public Schools and the Boston Teachers Union, and the daughter of a Colombian immigrant, who has received over $117,000 in student debt relief under the Biden-Harris Administration’s improved Public Service Loan Forgiveness (PSLF) Program,” Pressley writes.
City payroll data posted by the Herald present that instructor, Priscilla Higuera Valentine, earned $135,901 in 2023; $116,595 in 2022; and $114,112 in 2021.
She is listed as a college instructor on the Conley Elementary School in Roslindale.
Just earlier than the beginning of President Biden’s speech, Pressley’s workers pushed again saying the Congresswoman was “proud to be joined” by the instructor.
“Student debt is deeply burdensome and impacts folks from all walks of life,” a spokesperson for the Congresswoman’s workplace stated, including the instructor is a “mother, caregiver, and educator who has worked in the Boston Public Schools for more than 20 years.”
The assertion goes on to again Biden’s push for faculty mortgage reduction “for as many people as possible.”
The Pressley spokesperson added the workplace “does not share personal details about private citizens beyond what those individuals have affirmatively offered.”
Records on-line do record the instructor as residing in split-ranch with a market worth that has pushed previous the million-dollar mark. Her payroll data are additionally posted on the City of Boston website.
In her press launch, Pressley writes that she is “a leading voice in Congress calling for broad-based student debt cancellation.”
To date, the Biden-Harris Administration has accepted nearly $138 billion in scholar debt cancellation for almost 4 million debtors, together with 793,000 public servants nationwide and 17,000 public servants in Massachusetts, Pressley added in her press launch.
The instructor couldn’t be reached for remark earlier than the speech, with a union member saying cellphones have been taken away from company.
The union additionally stated in an announcement that Valentine purchased the Dedham house by “combining finances” along with her mom — and that nobody has “control (over) what happens with valuations in the housing market.”
Valentine was quoted in Pressley’s press launch saying, partly, that having “more than $117,000 forgiven at once has opened my family’s world to a life that I could have only dreamed of a year ago. I am now able to save for my children to be able to go to college. I’m building good credit so my husband and I can refinance our mortgage.”
Source: www.bostonherald.com”