Rep. Pressley’s Guest at SOTU a Teacher Paid Six Figures Given $117K Student Debt Relief

(Boston Herald/TNS) — A teacher paid $135,901 last year who had student debt forgiven was the “honored” guest of U.S. Rep. Ayanna Pressley at the State of the Union address.

That teacher, who also owns a home in Dedham with her husband assessed in Zillow online records at about $1 million, was given $117,000 in student debt relief, Pressley says in a press release.

“Priscilla is a first generation American, a proud union educator with Boston Public Schools and the Boston Teachers Union, and the daughter of a Colombian immigrant, who has received over $117,000 in student debt relief under the Biden-Harris Administration’s improved Public Service Loan Forgiveness (PSLF) Program,” Pressley writes.

City payroll records posted by the Herald show that teacher, Priscilla Higuera Valentine, earned $135,901 in 2023; $116,595 in 2022; and $114,112 in 2021.

She is listed as a school teacher at the Conley Elementary School in Roslindale.

Just before the start of President Joe Biden’s speech, Pressley’s staff pushed back, saying the congresswoman was “proud to be joined” by the teacher.

“Student debt is deeply burdensome and impacts folks from all walks of life,” a spokesperson for the congresswoman’s office said, adding the teacher is a “mother, caregiver, and educator who has worked in the Boston Public Schools for more than 20 years.”

The statement goes on to back Biden’s push for college loan relief “for as many people as possible.”

The Pressley spokesperson added the office “does not share personal details about private citizens beyond what those individuals have affirmatively offered.”

Records online do list the teacher as living in split-ranch with a market value that has pushed past the million-dollar mark. Her payroll records are also posted on the City of Boston site.

In her press release, Pressley writes that she is “a leading voice in Congress calling for broad-based student debt cancellation.”

To date, the Biden-Harris Administration has approved almost $138 billion in student debt cancellation for nearly 4 million borrowers, including 793,000 public servants nationwide and 17,000 public servants in Massachusetts, Pressley added in her press release.

The teacher could not be reached for comment before the speech, with a union member saying cellphones were taken away from guests.

The union also said in a statement that Valentine bought the Dedham home by “combining finances” with her mother — and that no one has “control (over) what happens with valuations in the housing market.”

Valentine was quoted in Pressley’s press release saying, in part, that having “more than $117,000 forgiven at once has opened my family’s world to a life that I could have only dreamed of a year ago. I am now able to save for my children to be able to go to college. I’m building good credit so my husband and I can refinance our mortgage.”