I have been paying off these student loans for years

I am public school educator with 17 years of career elementary education teaching in a Georgia school system.  Earlier on I obtained my bachelors degree in education by attending a small HBCU with most of my education being financed through grants and student loans back in the 80’s.  Back then student loans were funded and guaranteed by the federal government and not by private financing institutions. After obtaining my bachelors degree and working until my children had graduated from high school and out of the house I decided to go back to school for a Masters in Education and a administrative specialist degree. I attended a for profit education institution in Georgia and tuition cost was more than $28,000 and another $17,500 for the specialist degree. All of the tuition was financed through Sally-Mae. I started repaying the loans by making the minimum payment for years and then my husband lost his job and we couldn’t pay the payment any longer. We deferred the payment several times because my husband couldn’t find a job and we got father behind. The student loan balance shot up to $51,000.00 with interest and with me having the only income in our family we went underwater with debt.  Sally-Mae continues to call daily about the payments and we tried to avoid the phone calls but they continue to come. I made another deferral and the phone stopped.  Every time we deferred the loan was recapitalized and the principle balance increased and the loan balance kept going up. The loan is now on deferral and I am so frustrated that the loan is so high and I don’t know that we will ever pay the loans down with the economy the way it is. I don’t understand the financing process and how my loan got to be so high. It seems as if there are constant penalties and interest changes. It is so hard to keep up with the loan payments and I worry about how I am going to get a $50,000 loan paid off in my life time that is affecting my credit and my ability to get a car and home loan.  The last time we heard from Sally-Mae the payments were going to be over $500.00 per month and I know I won’t be able to pay that.  With me working every day I don’t have too much time to understand how much I owe.

-School Guidance Counselor, Janice Y. Sander