Well, obviously a whole lot more information would be need to go into making this sort of decision, especially given the diversity of options. You have quite a lot of student loan debt and even at $50 per hour you're looking at a higher 5 figures pay. And finding the "perfect" position in your specialty at a facility you love may not happen. Or your next position could be your dream job...
Given that the school hiring season is almost upon you and you state that going back and forth between clinics and schools would not look good, you might consider either staying put one more year and/or trying to move laterally to a different school. I don't see why one more year at a public school would lock you into 9 more years (am I missing something?) and you would have time to make this decision in a slower and more controlled fashion. It doesn't seem like you have enough information about your alternatives. How bad is it really to work, say 3 years, at a private clinic and then go back to public schools (know anyone who did? or tried?)?
Some questions:
1. Have you run the numbers on various scenarios to determine how important the student loan forgiveness is to you long term? Does your "decent plan for ER in 15 years" depend on this? You might get more helpful feedback with the case study or your ER plan.
2. You said you are currently living with relatives. If you have to relocate for a job, you'd have to decide if the pay would cover the difference. Do you have a pseudo-budget in mind for controllable expenses (food, clothing, eating out, cell phone)? Even with higher pay at a private clinic, it might be very hard to save for ER and pay off your loans, especially if you relocate and have to cover more expenses. Depends on the pay and how much your expenses change. We've had offers for more pay in very HCOL areas where the gains were more than wiped out by increased housing costs.
3. You mentioned that at private clinics
you are locked into working all year.
Are summers or blocks of time off important to you? If so, nursing homes would present a problem as well.
4. Do you have contacts in your profession through a career organization (I'm thinking something like a national speech pathologist association)? If so, they might have a career section or a meeting where you could talk to folks in your field who are more senior about various types of positions and their experiences. A dedicated autism center (most major cities seem to have one) might be a placement you would prefer. It might help to network about how to get into one of those facilities (and find out the negatives about that path too). I'm not sure if any would qualify as public schools for loans plus you may have to relocate and pay more expenses.
5. For your ER dreams, do you want to get out of speech path or have freedom to work part time in your specialty or freelance (if that exists with speech path)?
6. How long is living with your relatives going to work for you (and them)? Is your ER plan based on that? Do you help with expenses?
I would be very, very cautious with the private clinic and nursing home options if you are looking for a good work atmosphere now. The grass is most definitely not always greener. The folks I know who work or did work for those types of places have had a very mixed bag of experiences. A lot have stories about poor administration and bad treatment of staff (none do speech path), way worse than we experienced at public schools. Honestly, neither of your descriptions of your friends' situations sound great in terms of your goal of enjoying life a bit now...probably equal or worse than your current situation. But their pay is definitely better. What is more important to you (some examples: ER as fast as possible and damn the current working conditions, enjoy my working conditions now even if I have to trade that for slower loan repayment and/ or delayed ER, I want life satisfaction now even if I never get to ER)?
DH also has an interest in working with kids with autism and had a great paying teaching gig (again not speech path) at a private facility. Unfortunately, in addition to the autism unit, they had the other kids. They had a change in management who promptly cut the number of vacation days in half and brought in some really violent kids...fast forward a bit and he resigned for his safety after a colleague ended up in the ICU with a TBI. Public schools can be annoying, aggravating and down-right maddening but they do not have the exclusive rights to poor atmosphere, bait-and-switch and bad administrators. They usually pay better though. There are almost always trade offs.
