Middleboro Review 2: Here’s where we are on student debt cancellation.....

Monday, April 29, 2024

Here’s where we are on student debt cancellation.....

Usually, progress doesn’t follow a straight line. It takes twists and turns. It comes with stops and starts. But if we keep at it, we can make real change.

And student debt cancellation is a prime example. Naysayers dismissed it as pie-in-the-sky. A far-right Supreme Court laid down giant roadblocks. But families are now getting relief, with more on the way.

It can be hard to keep track of all the latest developments, so here’s a quick summary:

President Biden has now delivered $153 billion in student loan relief to 4.3 million borrowers, including nurses, teachers, and other public servants who’ve been paying down their debt for years and years already.
He’s launched a new income-driven repayment plan with 8 million enrollees, where most borrowers pay $0 a month.
And he just announced new proposals that would bring the grand total of Americans receiving relief to 30 million.

Even though right-wing extremists on the Supreme Court substituted their own ideology for the rule of law and blocked the president’s broad-based student debt cancellation plan, he’s still finding ways to lift this crushing burden off people’s shoulders.

And even though critics and cynics claimed that student debt relief was impossible when we first started talking about it, it’s now making a real difference in millions of Americans’ lives. With millions more to come.

Experts kept illuminating how student loan debt was holding people back from launching new businesses, becoming homeowners, and even starting a family.

Borrowers kept sharing their personal stories.

Activists and activists kept up the pressure on Washington.

I kept working alongside colleagues and organizers and this whole grassroots team.

Together, we took student debt cancellation from “impossible” to $153 billion of debt canceled — and counting.

We can keep following that same roadmap to make more change that reaches more families. Like ensuring universal child care. And tackling the housing affordability crisis. And making technical schools, community colleges, and public universities tuition-free.

It starts with growing our grassroots movement, person to person, one grassroots contribution at a time. Can you pitch in with a donation right now to keep up the fight for bold reforms that touch people’s lives?