THE STUDENT DEBT CRISIS IS EVERYONE’S PROBLEM
President Biden has yet to fulfill his campaign promise to eliminate $10,000 of each student’s debt, while Sen. Warren is pushing for $50,000.
QUICK READ: After a backlash in the Reagan era, politicians sought to make access to higher education easier. Faced with growing demand and costs, colleges raised fees knowing loans would cover their expenses. But the political engineering has led to a $1.7 trillion debt that’s crushing the economy and young workers and exacerbating income inequality.
TAKE ACTION NOW:
BACKGROUND
President Biden promised to forgo $10,000 of each student’s college debt. Senator Warren is campaigning for $50,000. Either way, at $1.7 trillion, student debt is a crisis.
Student debt hobbles the economy. Once the Covid pause ends in March, student loan borrowers will start paying $7 billion a month to banks. If that money were circulated in the community, it would add $173 billion to the GDP.
Loans exacerbate inequities. Twenty years after starting college, white borrowers had 6% left on their loans, while the median Black borrower still owed 95% .
Traditional costs have been shifted to students. At one time states paid 65% of college costs. Reagan made deep cuts in student aid, and states sliced their contribution in half. Rather than raise taxes, the following Congresses devised new loan schemes, as colleges raised costs and for-profit colleges flourished.
That bill is now due. And disillusioned young people, especially people of color, struggle, many subject to abusive collection practices.
Biden must keep his $10,000 pledge. Congress needs to review today’s loan system and its impacts and deny loans for schools with disproportionately high default rates–, you often for-profit “colleges.”
We all benefit from having a well-educated citizenry.
ACTION One: Call the Senate.
Script for Oregon Senators
SEN. MERKLEY: Portland office: 503-326-3386 | D.C. office: 202-224-3753
My name is [--] and I'm a constituent from [city], Oregon [zip code].
(Messages and calls are most effective if they are personal. Scripts are here to help.)
Please push President Biden to live up to his campaign promise and cancel $10,000 in student debt. Then, Congress must review loan programs and exclude “colleges” with high default rates. Finally, you need to make community college free.
SEN. WYDEN:
Portland office: 503-326-7525 | D.C. office: 202-224-5244
My name is [–] and I’m a constituent from [city], Oregon [zip code].
(Messages and calls are most effective if they are personal. Scripts are here to help.)
Please push President Biden to live up to his campaign promise and cancel $10,000 in student debt. Then, Congress must review loan programs and exclude “colleges” with high default rates. Finally, you need to make community college free.
Script for Republican Senators
D.C switchboard: 202-224-3121
My name is [–] and I’m a constituent from [city], [state], [zip code].
(Messages and calls are most effective if they are personal. Scripts are here to help.)
Education is a social good. Please support access to higher education for minority students, including Native Americans.
ACTION TWO: Call the House.
Script for Suzanne Bonamici (OR-01)
Oregon office: 503-469-6010 | DC office: 202-225-0855
My name is [–] and I’m a constituent from [city], Oregon [zip code].
(Messages and calls are most effective if they are personal. Scripts are here to help.)
Please push President Biden to live up to his campaign promise and cancel $10,000 in student debt. Then, Congress must review loan programs and exclude “colleges” with high default rates. Finally, you need to make community college free.
Script for Cliff Bentz (OR-02)
Medford office: 541-776-4646 | DC office: 202-225-6730
My name is [–] and I’m a constituent from [city], Oregon [zip code].
(Messages and calls are most effective if they are personal. Scripts are here to help.)
Education is a social good. Please support access to higher education for minority students, including Native Americans.
Script for Earl Blumenauer (OR-03)
Oregon office: 503-231-2300 | DC office: 202-225-4811
My name is [–] and I’m a constituent from [city], Oregon [zip code].
(Messages and calls are most effective if they are personal. Scripts are here to help.)
Please push President Biden to live up to his campaign promise and cancel $10,000 in student debt. Then, Congress must review loan programs and exclude “colleges” with high default rates. Finally, you need to make community college free.
Script for Peter DeFazio (OR-04)
Eugene office: 541-465-6732 | DC office: 202-225-6416
My name is [–] and I’m a constituent from [city], Oregon [zip code].
(Messages and calls are most effective if they are personal. Scripts are here to help.)
Please push President Biden to live up to his campaign promise and cancel $10,000 in student debt. Then, Congress must review loan programs and exclude “colleges” with high default rates. Finally, you need to make community college free.
Script for Kurt Schrader (OR-05)
Salem office: 503-588-9100 | DC office: 202-225-5711
My name is [–] and I’m a constituent from [city], Oregon [zip code].
(Messages and calls are most effective if they are personal. Scripts are here to help.)
Please push President Biden to live up to his campaign promise and cancel $10,000 in student debt. Then, Congress must review loan programs and exclude “colleges” with high default rates. Finally, you need to make community college free.
ACTION 3: “GOOD TROUBLE”
Below are opportunities to fight for our democracy. As John Lewis said, make some “good trouble.”
Join Indivisible Oregon.
Join the fight to reform the Supreme Court by volunteering with Demand Justice,
Learn about persuasive language and communication research at the Zoom ASO Movement Briefings every second Wednesday.
Join the campaign to hold the House and Senate at GiveNoGround.org
Work to protect democracy in the House by replacing retiring US Representative Peter DeFazio with another Democrat, replacing Democrat Kurt Schrader, the “Manchin of the House,” with a progressive, and electing a Democrat in Oregon’s new Congressional District 6.
Demand your primary news source stop creating false equivalencies and just report the truth.
Check out the Poor People's Campaign Readies 'Massive, Nonviolent' Effort to Save Democracy
Outside of Portland? Check out COIN Oregon.
Center for Common Ground is starting new Reclaim Our Vote campaigns: TEXAS Primary is First! Writing to 730,000 Black registered voters in Texas, urging them to vote in the upcoming March 1st Primary. Only 1 in 25 Texas voters participate in primaries. Postcards For Texas with Center for Common Ground. And phone banks!
Fridays at 4 - Letter and Postcard Writing — Indivisible Oregon.
FURTHER READING:
Student Debt Must Be Canceled, Not Just Paused, Elizabeth Warren Says | Teen Vogue
Student loan history (video) Chapter One - Lumina Foundation
Biden Administration Extends Pause on Student Loan Payments Until May 1 - The New York Times
Student-Loan Borrowers Need Relief From 'Abusive Practices': Elizabeth Warren
