With a pandemic pause on student loan repayments set to expire this year, debt abolitionists have stepped up their campaign to get Washington to cancel education debt entirely.
By Sarah Jaffe and Michelle Chen, Dissent
More than 45 million people across the United States are shackled to roughly $1.75 trillion in student debt, which many will be paying off for the rest of their lives. While student loans are often associated with college-educated professionals, education debt disproportionately burdens Black students and women, potentially sinking their prospects for home ownership, starting a family, or saving for retirement.
Two years into the pandemic, there is a growing call for the total cancellation of student debt. The Biden administration has offered reforms to give limited relief to some student borrowers, but debt abolitionists say it’s not enough. The Debt Collective—which has been organizing for the abolition of all forms of financial debt for over a decade—is stepping up its campaign on student loans, urging Washington to not only wipe out all student debt through executive action, but also make college free for all so that future students won’t need to get indebted to get educated. We spoke with two organizers with the Debt Collective, Ami Schneider, who is also a debt striker, and Eleni Schirmer, a research associate with the University of California-Los Angeles.
In other news, we check in on Stanford nurses preparing to strike, Kenyon students already on strike, organizing Apple store workers, and the National Labor Relations Board taking aim at “captive audience meetings.” With recommended reading on train conductors battling exhaustion and emergency room doctors fighting privatization.
Thank you for listening to our 245th episode! If you like the show, you can support us on Patreon with a monthly contribution, at the level that best suits you.
Subscribe to the Belabored RSS feed here. Support the podcast on Patreon. Subscribe and rate on iTunes, Stitcher, and Spotify. Tweet at @DissentMag with #Belabored to share your thoughts, or join the conversation on Facebook. Check out the full archive here. Belabored is produced by Colin Kinniburgh.
Recent Posts
Trump Says He Is in ‘Deciding Mode’ on Destroying Iran
Take Action Now The Pentagon’s own death count is undercounting US troops killed in the seven-month war, the Washington Post has reported.By…
In the Age of AI, Nuclear Weapons Abolition Is a Renewed Imperative
Take Action Now As long as we have nuclear weapons, the job of ending humanity will continue to be as easy as the push of a button—or an AI agent…
Why Do We Let Zionists Decide What We Can and Can’t Say?
Take Action Now Kraft is a man who appears in the Epstein files, was twice caught on camera with prostitutes, donates heavily to the IDF, and even…
Trump Says He’s Banning CNN, MS NOW, and Politico From the White House
Take Action Now “These outrageous attacks only demonstrate how scared he is of an informed public,” said one press freedom advocate.By Stephen…