DHS Student Loan Reimbursement Townhall Questions

Townhall questions  

What is happening with the student loan reimbursement policy? 

MAPE members and leaders have been pushing DHS for more than three months to provide a Student Loan reimbursement policy to employees after changes to our contract allowed agencies to make a permanent policy. DHS management has been dragging their feet and employees are tired of waiting. It is time for management to understand how important it is to our members to be able to access a student loan reimbursement program.   

What do we need people to do? How can they do it?  

MAPE DHS leaders are calling on other DHS employees to share their stories with management about why we need this program. Below is a list of questions that we are encouraging members to ask at town halls and in meetings with decision-makers like the commissioner and assistant commissioners. This is protected union activity and other agencies, like Revenue, used this tactic to get an actionable policy from management.  

Copy/paste questions for the chat 

Recently the MAPE Meet and Confer has been trying to work with management to create a student loan reimbursement campaign. Can you talk about where that policy is at?  

Our last MAPE contract allowed agencies to create a student loan reimbursement policy. Why does DHS not have one? Can we get an update on what DHS is doing to address student loan debt and how it impacts DHS employees?  

I have [$$amount] in student loan debt that I got so I can [insert DHS work title/description]. I’m disappointed to hear that management isn’t work quickly enough and with the unions to address this. Can you tell us why it is taking so long to create a policy even though our contract was enacted almost a year ago? 

I would like an update on the student loan debt reimbursement policy. Can you tell us where the policy is at? Why is it taking so long?