A new phase of Occupy Wall Street has begun, and to mark that phase comes the announcement of the Occupy Student Debt Campaign. According to some, this campaign is led by NYU professor Andrew Ross.
This campaign is calling for debtors to refuse to pay their student debt.
As members of the most indebted generations in history, we pledge to stop making student loan payments after one million of us have signed this pledge.
Student loan debt, soon to top $1 trillion, is poisoning the pursuit of higher education. With chronic underemployment likely for decades to come, we will carry an intolerable burden into the future. The time has come to refuse this debt load. Debt distorts our educational priorities and severely limits our life options.
Education is not a commodity and it should not be a vehicle for generating debt, or profit for banks. Education at all levels –pre- K through Ph.D. -- is a right and a public good.
* We believe the federal government should cover the cost of tuition at public colleges and universities.
* We believe that any student loan should be interest-free.
* We believe that private and for-profit colleges and universities, which are largely financed through student debt, should open their books.
*We believe that the current student debt load should be written off.
In acknowledgment of these beliefs, I am signing the Debtors’ Pledge of Refusal.
It's not just for students in debt, though. There are pledges for both Faculty and Non-Debtors.
As of now, the student debt in the US is at $958.5 billion dollars and climbing. This can no longer be ignored. Over the years, we have seen a reduction in grants and a disproportionate increase in student loans. Someone I know personally still has a debt of almost $250k, and that person has been out of college for a decent number of years.
Students are graduating in such a high amount of debt which they cannot begin to perceive how they will pay off. This forces them to take any job they can possibly get, instead of striving for the best, or chasing that elusive career they've been dreaming of all their lives.
So, in the spirit of the Occupy Movement, this campaign is not directly making demands to the government or anyone else. Instead, they have chosen a simple action, very similar to the move-your-money-out-of-big-banks: Stop Writing Those Checks!
The simple fact that faculty members are jumping in on this should demonstrate the enormity of this situation and this campaign. It is most certainly a 'fight for our lives', because we are fighting against being in debt for the rest of our lives. We are fighting for the freedom to choose our future and our careers, rather than taking the first job offer we get. We are fighting against the 1% - or whoever you think is raising the cost of tuition.
No, we don't think people should "get a free ride" - a desire that some are accusing this campaign of having. But we do believe students should have a fighting chance after graduation, and this enormous debt shackles them.
As this campaign continues, and as this phase of Occupy Wall Street gains momentum, we will probably see more of this. OWS has moved past tents and signs. We saw their action when hundreds upon thousands have moved their money out of BofA, Chase, etc. Now we will see it focused on the "Super Committee" who have failed the 99%, student debt, and who knows what else?
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