It’s time to end student debt!

As graduation approaches for many college students this spring, the outlook for post-graduation will be dire. Instead of, “What do you plan to do next?” the questions are: “How much student debt are you graduating with?” or “Do you think you’ll be able to find a job?” The situation has grown grim for recent graduates. On top of 1 out of every 2 graduates being jobless or unemployed, students will graduate with an average of $25,000 in debt this year. On April 25th, student debt even surpassed the one trillion dollar mark – making student debt larger than credit card debt and auto loans.

The largest profiteer off of student debt, Sallie Mae, has been leading the crusade to make a buck off of students suffering the worst economic recession since the 1920’s. Already spending over one million dollars on lobbying in 2012, Sallie Mae has been one of the most aggressive lobbyists on the Hill using money received from students, to allow private lenders to use predatory practices, including hidden fees that further bury students in debt.

This spring, we have been taking the message of the 99% to the door steps of the 1% during corporate shareholder meetings. From mic-checks at Verizon demanding good jobs and getting thrown out of Bank of America for demanding answers about their bankrupt business practices, the fight continues on.

It’s become clear that student debt has spiraled out of control and now students are demanding debt forgiveness! May 24th students, workers, and recent graduates will be gathering in Newark, Delaware to confront Sallie Mae CEO Albert Lord and demand student debt forgiveness and that they keep their corporate money out of our democracy. We will be meeting at 8AM with the action starting at 9:30AM.

For more information, contact Chris Hicks from Student Labor Action Project at 202-316-0237 or chris@jwj.org

This entry was posted on Friday, May 11th, 2012 at 5:44 pm. It is filed under Blog. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed.