Take control of your student loan debt

What this book actually teaches

Robin Leonard and Sheryl Garrett's Take Control of Your Student Loan Debt (2010) makes a case that is blunt and practical: student loans are not like other debt, and managing them well requires understanding a set of rules — income-driven repayment plans, deferment and forbearance options, discharge and forgiveness programs — that most borrowers never learn because lenders have little incentive to explain them clearly. The book's core argument is that borrowers have more options than the standard repayment letter suggests, and that knowing those options early changes the financial trajectory significantly.

The book covers federal and private student loans separately, which is the correct structure — the rules governing each are fundamentally different. For federal loans, the treatment of income-driven repayment plans is detailed: the income-contingent repayment program (ICR), income-sensitive repayment, and the graduated repayment structures available at the time of publication are walked through with worked examples. The deferment chapter covers the specific conditions that trigger in-school, economic hardship, and military deferments, and distinguishes them clearly from forbearance, which Leonard and Garrett treat as a last resort because interest continues to capitalize. The discharge section is one of the book's strongest: it covers total and permanent disability discharge, closed school discharge, false certification discharge, and unpaid refund discharge — categories most borrowers do not know exist. The chapter on loan forgiveness covers public service employment and teacher loan forgiveness, which were the primary pathways available in 2010.

This is aimed at borrowers — particularly those in financial difficulty, in public service careers, or managing loans from schools that closed — who need to understand the full menu of options before making repayment decisions.

The weaknesses are structural and significant. The book was published in 2010, before the Pay As You Earn (PAYE) program (2012), Revised PAYE (2015), the SAVE plan (2023), the post-2010 elimination of FFEL new originations, and the Supreme Court's 2023 ruling on broad loan forgiveness. The federal student loan landscape changed substantially after this book went to print. Income thresholds, forgiveness timelines, and specific program rules described in the book should be verified against current Federal Student Aid guidance before acting. Private loan sections are the most durably useful, as private loan rules are set by lenders and have not changed as dramatically.

Worth reading as a framework for understanding how federal student loan rules are structured and where the leverage points are — but not a current reference. Pair with the studentaid.gov loan simulator for current program parameters.

Read next

About Robin Leonard

Read more from Robin Leonard and explore the full bibliography on ClearValue Books.