Pilot and Aircraft Technicians Can Get Help With Student Loans

The Minnesota Aviation Degree Loan Repayment Program was signed into law last year by Governor Dayton to help student loan payments to qualifying pilots and aircraft technicians living in Minnesota.

Applications are now being accepted to be selected for the program. The Minnesota Aviation Degree Loan Repayment Program awards a selected pilot with $5,000 or the balance of the participant’s qualified education loans, whichever is less. The selected aircraft technician will be awarded with $3,000 or the balance of the participant’s qualified education loans, whichever is less.

The 2018 online application is now available. To be eligible, applicants must:

• Have earned an associates or bachelor’s degree from a Minnesota institution
• Be a qualified pilot or aircraft technician

o    Pilot: in the process of obtaining or has obtained an airline transport pilot certificate

o    Aircraft Technician: has obtained an aviation mechanics certificate from the Federal Aviation Administration

• Reside in Minnesota
• Have outstanding qualified educational loan debt that was originally borrowed for educational costs at a Minnesota institution for a professional aviation degree
• Must agree to sign a contract to serve a minimum one-year full-time service obligation

The deadline for applying for this program is Oct 19, 2018; the application is available here: https://www.ohe.state.mn.us/ssl/adlr/lapp.cfm

For more information about the Minnesota Aviation Degree Loan Repayment Program, contact the Minnesota Office of Higher Education: 651-642-0567, 1-800-657-3866, or [email protected].