No doubt student loans are a big issue, bigger for the dropouts and stopouts, and anyone else who took on loans but doesn't have a degree. I should know, as I was one of them for several years before going back to undergrad.
You examples all seem to be public servants, who are all eligible for the PSLF program. Yes, the clickbait headlines make PSLF sound like a complete failure, but the updated data show a promising upward trend in both approvals and average balance forgiven. Even the TEPSLF program is getting better.
Your schoolteacher sounds like she got screwed by the TEACH grant, which had and has its own problems. However, that program has its own reconsideration program for just this occasion.
https://studentaid.gov/understand-aid/types/grants/teach/teach-reconsideration
Civil servants definitely make less than the public sector can pay on the surface, but add in the six figures of student loan forgiveness and maybe government work doesn't sound so bad. You might even get a pension out of it.
