Attorney General Alan Wilson aims to forgive student loans for totally and permanently disabled veterans. 

With a bipartisan coalition of attorneys general, he called on the US Department of Education to forgive the loans for those disabled in military service. 

Last year DOE identified more than 42,000 veterans as eligible for student loan relief due to a service-related total and permanent disability.

Fewer than 9,000 of those veterans had applied to have their loans discharged and more than 25,000 had student loans in default.

While an automatic discharge process is developed, they propose DOE halt debt collection from disabled veterans and clear their credit reports of any negative reporting related to student loans. 

“This is something our country should do to show its gratitude to veterans who’ve made tremendous sacrifices that left them totally and permanently disabled,” Wilson said. 

Under federal law, DOE is required to discharge federal student loans of veterans unemployable or totally and permanently disabled due to a service-connected condition. DOE requires disabled veterans to apply for a loan discharge.