An Oregon Trail to End Student Debt
Activist holds a ball and chain representing his college loan debt. (AP Photo/Jacquelyn Martin)
On July 1, federal student loan rates doubled—yes, doubled—from 3.4 percent to 6.8, after members of Congress went home for fireworks without lifting a finger on the issue. Meanwhile, in Oregon, legislators unanimously passed a bill paving the way for students to attend public universities without paying tuition or taking out traditional loans at all.
Fueled by the organizing savvy, policy creativity and relentless effort of the state Working Families Party, and by a classroom of outstanding college students, the new bill offers a progressive victory and a common-sense national model on an issue where Congress has recently been derelict at best. The legislation, which Democratic Governor John Kitzhaber is expected to sign, instructs Oregon’s Higher Education Coordination Commission to come up with a “Pay It Forward, Pay It Back” public university financing model in time for a legislative vote in 2015.
Under such a model, students pay nothing while in school; instead, after graduation, four-year students pay 3 percent of their income for the next two decades or so to fund the education of future students—without a role for the big banks. (Those who attend for less time would pay a
Read more: An Oregon Trail to End Student Debt | The Nation http://www.thenation.com/blog/175166/oregon-trail-end-student-debt#ixzz2Yl7szwd8
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Students at CUNY’s Medgar Evers College hit the streets to demand input in university governance. (Credit: CSOME)
E-mail questions, tips or proposals to studentmovement@thenation.com. For earlier dispatches, check out posts from January 18, February 1, February 15, March 1, March 15, April 2, April 15, April 26, May 10, May 24, June 7 and June 21.
1. Chicago Board of Education Disrupts Peaceful Student Speak-Out
In June, Chicago Public Schools introduced a new per-pupil funding new system in which school budgets will be cut between $200,000 and $4 million. As a response to the massive budget cuts, Chicago Students Organizing to Save Our Schools took action at the June 26 Board of Education meeting. At the end of the two-minute speech, students stood up one by one to speak out against the board. Students were escorted away from the meeting by security guards as
Read more: From Austin to Charleston, Students One-Up the Supreme Court | The Nation http://www.thenation.com/blog/175119/austin-charleston-students-one-supreme-court#ixzz2Yl80QnX3
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