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
Government Corruption a Top Issue for U.S. Midterm Voters, Exclusive Poll Finds
Take Action Now Harris poll for Guardian finds 76% believe officials care more about self-enrichment than helping everyday AmericansBy Lauren…
Radical Centrists Like Haley Stevens Are the Real Extremists in the Democratic Party
Take Action Now By endorsing Abdul El-Sayed’s opponent for Israel’s sake, Stevens shows how the real threat to progress comes from centrists.By…
From ‘hope and change’ to MAGA fascism
Take Action Now He bailed out Wall Street financiers who helped create the Great Recession of 2008, allotting 700 million dollars of public money to…
Top Democrats are fighting a billionaire tax in California. Their voters are on the other side
Take Action Now The unprecedented measure has enormous potential nationwide. The clash exposes the party’s corporate-progressive divideBy Norman…