Local teachers try unique living situation to help pay student loans

By Eliza Kruczynski

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    CONNECTICUT (WFSB) — Two local teachers have tried everything, but their student loans are just too much to handle.

Now they have a unique living situation but they’re making the most of it while they work up some savings to pay those loans.

Adam Constantilos and his wife are both teachers.

Adam is in his fifth year of teaching elementary school physical education, which he absolutely loves.

“It’s a great school, I love the kids, they love me,” said Adam.

An easy transfer from Springfield Technical Community College to Springfield College for undergrad and his masters, Adam knew being a PE teacher was the job for him until the student loans started to come in.

“It’s not easy to figure out how to pay these bills when it’s most of what I make,” Adam said.

After school, the PE teacher takes his skills to the local rock-climbing gym where he teaches three days a week.

But Adam didn’t take the traditional route to college.

“I didn’t go to college until 10 years after high school,” Adam said.

Right now, he’s dealing with paying hundreds of dollars a month to private loans, and that’s not even including federal loans.

He said this is not what he expected when he applied for them.

“I didn’t give it too much more thought I just was under that assumption that, you know, if they’re able to give it to me that I’m going to be in a position to be okay when I’m done with this. Especially going all the way through to my masters,” Adam said.

The loans became crippling, and the way his finances worked out, basically his entire paycheck went to rent.

In May, Adam and his wife, who teaches elementary special education, made the difficult decision to move.

“We moved into a campground,” said Adam.

It’s a place they’ve spent a lot of time, and they figured for the time being, while it’s not the most ideal situation, moving into their camper was really the only option they had if they want to save money and pay their loans.

“It’s tight, it’s a 20-foot-long camper, we’ve got a bed, he’s got his bunk, got our kitchen but we’re like together all the time,” Adam said.

Adam said he’s tried everything to get the loans down, but it’s just not working.

Eyewitness News spoke with an economics professor who says there might still some things to try if you’re finding yourself in similar situation.

“If they’re teaching in a low-income school, they can get some or all of the student debt forgiven,” said John Rosen, Adjunct Professor of Economics at the University of New Haven. “If either of them was engaged in public service after college, they can get some or all of the loans forgiven.”

“There are debt councilors, debt counseling companies they can reach out to and these people help with working your way out of debt,” Rosen said.

Adam said by no means are they poor, but this move is what needed to be done.

“We have the job we’re supposed to have, the degrees we’re supposed to have but we are in this situation still. We’re not trying to say we don’t have any money or we’re poor it just doesn’t line up for us and I don’t know what to do next,” said Adam.

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