WASHINGTON — Activists and senators, including Elizabeth Warren, rallied on Capitol Hill to advocate for debt-free higher education
.
The forum opened with the fact that the cost of a college tuition has increased by a whopping 300% over the last 30 years. Graduates’ college debt comes in second in the nation, only to credit card debt. This debt leaves 45% of graduates living at home with their parents after college.
There are 400,000 signatures in support
of debt-free graduates and college experiences with nearly 5,000 national leaders. Some of these national leaders are Bernie Sanders and Hilary Clinton. Sanders has passed his own bill on the issue, as he claims that debt-free is the way to go.
Every Senator and spokesperson for the debt-free issue spoke on the popularity this idea has gained. They all pushed that this issue should be one on the front-line of both congress and the presidential election. The Senate and Demos (a research and policy center that presents a liberal viewpoint on economic issues) representatives made the debt-free issue seem crucial.
Adam Green, the legislation’s first speaker, claimed that a debt-free college experience was the #1 issue for democrats that didn’t vote, according to a poll back in January, that would entice people to vote in the upcoming elections.
Democratic New York Senator Chuck Schumer made the debt-free ideal as a national campaign. “I love America“, he said in support of debt-free college experiences.
Senator Warren followed with saying she “grew up in an America that supported people like me” as she told her life story and her own struggles faced with attending college. Warren ended up getting her college degree for just $50 a year.
Democratic Representative of Arizona Raúl Grijalva looks at education as an equalizer and justifies his support claiming that all students should be given the same chances.
Democratic Representative of Massachusetts Katherine Clark agreed with this by saying that debt limits opportunity. She said “there is all this talk about spending but what about investments? It’s time to invest, we have to invest”!
With all the Senators and representatives already having spoke, some real-life students currently facing debt provided their stories. First speaker, Maya, a student at University of Massachusetts at Amherst, faces $30,000 in debt and urged that a debt-free graduate could change the future of jobs and the middle-class America. The second student speaker is going into his last semester at University of Maryland and faces $25,000 in debt.
Closing the legislation, Senator Warren pleaded that this issue be taken seriously. At the end of the 30-minute press conference, every single senator present made sure that their stance on the debt-free issue was clear: without debt, job hiring and number of graduates will increase. Without debt, the middle class will, also, increase.
The senators, and 400,000 other signatures of supporters, remain hopeful and strongly advocate for a “debt-free upon graduation” future for current college students.