Rep. Pramila Jayapal (WA-07), Rep. & DNC Deputy Chair Keith Ellison (MN-05), Senator Elizabeth Warren (D-Mass) and Senator Bernie Sanders (I-VT) introduced today the College for All Act “which would eliminate college tuition and fees at colleges and universities for students from families earning up to $125,000, make community college tuition free and address the student debt crisis.”
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For Rep. Pramila Jayapal, the first Indian-American woman elected to U.S. Congress, the College for All Act is personal.
Students of color and black students specifically carry twice the student loan debt as their white counterparts.
Black college graduates are more likely than their white peers to leave school with student debt and to default on those loans. Those are both well-known, widely covered issues. Now a Brookings Institution report from a pair of researchers at Columbia University points out a troubling new finding: The gap in debt between black graduates and white graduates more than triples just several years after college, a crucial time for saving and laying the groundwork for retirement.
The staggering costs of college tuition and debt load are not only are major factors in lower graduation rates for students of color, but also have long term impacts affecting ability to purchase a home and retirement savings.
“The magnitude of that gap is huge after four years; it’s enormous,” Scott-Clayton said.
The College for All Act is fast gaining support and endorsements from elected officials, unions and progressive organizations.
WASHINGTON, April 3, 2017
SEIU applauds Senator Bernie Sanders Introduction of the College for All Act, which will restore public higher education as a public good
The members of the Service Employees International Union (SEIU), including more than 120,000 tenured, tenure-track and non-tenured faculty, adjunct instructors, post-doctoral associates, researchers and other campus workers, are ready to fight alongside Senator Sanders, students and our coalition partners Student Debt Crisis and Higher Ed Not Debt to ensure the passage of the College for All Act.
Tuesday, Apr 4, 2017 · 12:02:12 AM +00:00
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igualdad
More co-sponsors!
A number of Democrats have co-sponsored the bill. According to Sanders' office, they are: Sens. Elizabeth Warren (D-Mass.), Kamala Harris (D-Calif.), Richard Blumenthal (D-Conn.), Chris Murphy (D-Conn.) and Kirsten Gillibrand (D-N.Y.). In the House, Reps. Bobby Scott (D-Va.), Keith Ellison (D-Minn.), Raúl Grijalva (D-Ariz.), Rick Nolan (D-Minn.), Barbara Lee (D-Calif.), Sheila Jackson Lee (D-Texas), Ro Khanna (D-Calif.), Eleanor Holmes Norton (D-D.C.), Nydia Velázquez (D-N.Y.), John Conyers (D-Mich.), Peter Welch (D-Vt.), Mark Pocan (D-Wis.), David Cicilline (D-R.I.) and Jamie Raskin (D-Md.).