Skip the Coffee, Pay off a Teacher's College Debt

Hello there! My name's Scotty Burford.

Who am I?

I'm a 6th Grade Social Studies teacher in Manhattan, KS -- home of the Kansas State Wildcats! I love hanging out with the awesome kiddos that I'm blessed to teach. Our primary focus in 6th grade is Ancient Civilizations (think: Egypt, Babylon, Israel, Greece, Rome, China, Great Zimbabwe, etc.) but we also make lots of connections to more modern topics and current events.

(A section of our gargantuan timeline that the kids compile throughout the year. This section shows some of the more recent historical events and people that they chose to research.)

For example: There are many economic, political, and environmental themes that get repeated throughout history -- we're able to use insights and lessons from history to shed light on more recent phenomena. This leads the kids to fresh perspectives and brilliant, often quite viable solutions to our world's problems. These kids are the future, so thank God that they've got a fiery passion for resolving the issues that plague our world.

The Ask: A Bag of M&M's

I turned 29 in April and my hairline is starting to show it. (My kids lovingly call me "Mr. Baldford".) I would like to pay off the remainder of my college loans by the time I turn 30. But I can't do that alone. I need your help... in the form of two $1 bills.

(Photo source: https://progressivegrocer.com/dollar-tree-reports-17b-net-loss-q4)

I want to be clear, I'm not loafing around waiting for someone else to pay for the career and lifestyle that I chose. I've utilized various student aid options including maintaining several jobs at various times throughout my college career and working most summers as a teacher and college student. I live in a modest apartment with a roommate. I drive an economical vehicle. I buy generic groceries. (Side note: If you're not buying generic groceries, you're crazy. It's literally the same stuff, just half the price. Heck, half the time it seems to taste even better than brand name. Perhaps it's just the salty-sweetness of sufficient saved salaries? Ok. Sorry. Stepping off the soapbox now.)

Theoretically, teachers receive some loan forgiveness after varying amounts of time within select districts/schools. However, even our divided congress agrees that the Public Service Loan Forgiveness (PSLF) program is often a bit misleading to say the least. (CNN - 99 percent of applicants rejected from PSLF

As such, I would humbly ask you to consider these two small tasks:

Here's why I'm asking for less than $2:

How many Facebook friends do you have? 100? 250? 500?

Last I checked, I had 594 Facebook friends.

Let's assume everyone has at least 50 Facebook friends. Imagine if half of your Facebook friends donated $2.

That would be 594 (my friends) x 25 (your friends) = 14,850 people x $2 = $29,700.

My Dept. of Ed. loans are currently at $31,000. Any funds raised will got towards this balance. I'll make up the difference. Like I said, I'm not looking to loaf around while people hand me cash, I'd just rather not have thousands of dollars of debt hanging over my head for the next 10 years. (In other words: I'm looking to expedite the payment process, not sidestep it.)

Worst case scenario, I will continue to work multiple jobs to supplement classroom materials, car repairs, rent, etc. while teaching. I've been doing it for 5 years. It is doable and it'll all work out in the wash. I'm a go getter and trust in God's provision. But if there's some folks out there willing to skip that frappucino today and send me a couple bucks, boy would that feel good. :)

Thank you for your consideration and thank you for supporting kids and teachers -- in all sorts of ways (not just financially),

Mr. Robert "Scotty" Burford