{"id":3452,"date":"2023-04-13T14:19:45","date_gmt":"2023-04-13T18:19:45","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.skypointfcu.com\/wph\/workarea\/?p=3452"},"modified":"2023-04-13T14:20:10","modified_gmt":"2023-04-13T18:20:10","slug":"voices-backing-student-debt-cancellation-rise-at-protest","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.skypointfcu.com\/wph\/workarea\/blog\/voices-backing-student-debt-cancellation-rise-at-protest\/","title":{"rendered":"Voices Backing Student Debt Cancellation Rise at Protest<\/strong>"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

As a formal debate on student debt cancellation unfolded inside the Supreme Court on Tuesday, the scene outside was lively and loud.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The People\u2019s Rally for Student Debt Cancellation, co-hosted by the NAACP, Student Borrower Protection Center, Young Invincibles and over 20 other organizations, urged the court to rule in favor of President Joe Biden\u2019s up-to-$20,000 student debt cancellation plan<\/a>. The rally\u2019s message was clear: Student loan debt is a civil rights failure, and the Supreme Court has a legal and moral obligation to cancel it.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Standing before a backdrop reading \u201cStudent Debt Cancellation is Legal,\u201d Cedric Lawson, field director at the Leadership Conference on Civil and Human Rights, led the crowd through call-and-response chants.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cEducation,\u201d Lawson called. \u201cIS A RIGHT,\u201d the crowd responded.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cCollege access,\u201d Lawson followed up. \u201cIS A RIGHT,\u201d the crowd repeated.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The rally had over 100 protesters who traveled to Washington, D.C., from around the country, musicians, more than 30 speakers and nearly four hours of personal stories on how student debt affects the lives of borrowers. Progressive lawmakers including Sen. Bernie Sanders, I-Vt.; Sen. Elizabeth Warren, D-Mass.; and Rep. Ilhan Omar, D-Minn.; also took to the small stage facing out from the court\u2019s marble steps.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Maddy Clifford, deputy press secretary of the Debt Collective, said her $120,000 student loan debt now feels like a badge of solidarity. \u201cIf one person owes the bank, that\u2019s the one person\u2019s problem,\u201d she told the crowd. \u201cBut when a million people owe the bank, that\u2019s the bank\u2019s problem.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

There are over 45 million borrowers who collectively owe $1.6 trillion of federal student loans<\/a>, the White House says.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Speakers encouraged the protesters \u2014 many of whom are among that 45 million \u2014 to chant loud enough for the justices to hear them inside. If they were listening, this is what they might have heard.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Borrowers\u2019 stories shed light on student debt crisis<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Several borrowers shared feelings of shame and embarrassment<\/a> at their inability to pay their student debt. They say they were gaslit by a system that set them up for failure and let them think it was their fault.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Shanna Hayes of Washington, D.C., described herself as a first-generation college student who accumulated over $150,000 in student loan debt. She says her first job as a public school teacher paid $29,000 a year. \u201cI went from feelings of joy and pride to feeling like I couldn\u2019t afford a place to live,\u201d she says.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

She contacted her student loan servicer to discuss the best way to manage her debt and says she was put in a plan that set her payments to $0 but continued to tack on interest and disqualified her from Public Service Loan Forgiveness, a federal program intended to forgive student debt for borrowers who spend a decade working in certain public service jobs like teaching.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Ashley Green of St. Petersburg, Florida, says she took out $78,000 in federal student loans that ballooned up to $112,000 over the past decade. \u201cI\u2019ve paid back about $58,000, so I still owe about as much as I\u2019ve taken out,\u201d she says.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Green, who has spent her career in nonprofit and service work, says people are told they have to get an education to make it in life, but her education debt caused her to have trouble sustaining herself.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cIt took me a while to realize I was not alone. I thought I was wrong for having to take out loans in the first place, and I was wrong for not being able to repay them,\u201d she says. \u201cThis is actually a problem in how our higher education system is structured in itself.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Systemic racism blamed for putting black and brown borrowers at higher risk<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Nearly every speaker at the rally touched on the outsized burden of student loan debt on borrowers of color<\/a>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Rep. Ayanna Pressley, D-Mass., used her speech to tie student debt to other historic actions that \u201cdenied [Black Americans] the ability to build generational wealth,\u201d including redlining and GI Bill refusal. Because of that history, she said, Black Americans \u201cborrow and default at higher rates.\u201d <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Over 80% of Black students borrow student loans to get through college, several rally speakers pointed out. Nearly half of all Black borrowers defaulted on their loans, federal data shows.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Student debt can determine the opportunities of those who relied on it. \u201cI thought a few loans here and there would be something I could pay back over time,\u201d Green says. \u201cThey\u2019ve shaped everything over the last decade \u2014 where I\u2019ve lived, what I\u2019ve been able to pursue.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

One protester stood at the front of the crowd, holding a sign that read, \u201c72% of Latinos take out student loans,\u201d an assertion backed by the Student Borrower Protection Center.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cThis is a story that plays out in every Latino family,\u201d she said. And it appears to persist to the next generation: The Education Data Initiative, an independent team of researchers who analyze federal higher education data, found that Latino and Hispanic borrowers were most likely among all groups to delay marriage and having children because of student debt.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The rally, she says, \u201cis about how student loan debt affects minorities.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Hayes asks lawmakers to consider the circumstances of those who take out student loans and feels there is a disconnect between those in power and those in debt. \u201cThe folks making these decisions are the people who the system has worked swimmingly for,\u201d she says.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Warnings to future borrowers<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

While student loan borrowers at the rally await a solution to their debt, they have cautionary words for those coming after them.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cAsk more questions than I did,\u201d Hayes says.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

She also advises high school students to seek help from local nonprofits if they don\u2019t have anyone at home to help them plan for college funding.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Green warns future college students to be intentional about the loans they take out. \u201cIf you have an alternative \u2014 I mean any alternative \u2014 do not take out the loans,\u201d she says. \u201cIf I could do it again, I would probably go to community college first.\u201d <\/p>\n\n\n\n

While standing in the crowd, you could hear the echo of the chants bounce off the Supreme Court\u2019s marble facade.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cWhose court?\u201d Lawson asked. \u201cOUR COURT,\u201d the crowd replied.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Now, they wait to see if their voices made it through.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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