A story of student loan forgiveness, 20 years in the making

PO1 William "Chip" Nagel
..."Kurt Panton's laugh, surprising and unguarded, erupts when you expect it — after his baby daughter, Pauline, babbles adorably. But also when you don't — after he confesses frustration with the federal student loan system.

Kurt laughed a lot during our first Zoom conversation, in December of 2022, when he was worried about his $18,000 in outstanding loan debt, but also during our last conversation, just a few days ago, when he told me those debts had suddenly disappeared.

This is the story of what happened in between.

Kurt Panton is 43. He grew up in Miami with his brother and their mother, Barbara. After graduating from college in 2003, Kurt taught high school until 2016, when he moved to Germany, married Lizzy, who is German, and tried his hand at copywriting.

Through every step of his adult life, there have been a few constants: that laugh, his doting mom and Kurt's monthly federal student loan payment."...