I'm going on a debt strike. The Biden administration must cancel student debt
I’m on strike. This is not a typical strike. I’m not on a picket line, holding a sign while withholding my labor, showing a sense of united strength with my colleagues to win changes at work and in our lives. No, a different kind of strike. A debt strike. I’m still uniting with others to withhold something that gives someone else power. But this time, it’s my money.
I am one of more than 100 people on debt strike as part of the Biden Jubilee 100, refusing to pay our student loans until Joe Biden and the Democrats cancel all of it. We symbolically represent Biden’s first 100 days, the window during which we demand he take this important action. The urgency is real, and the administration can and must respond now.
I owe over $70,000 in student loan debt. My entire life, I aspired to achieve the American dream. My parents emigrated from one of the poorest countries in the world, Bangladesh, to the US in hopes that I would. I was told, and believed, that I could truly pull myself from my bootstraps. I signed up for tens of thousands of dollars in loans, believing that was the only way to achieve that American dream.
In reality, I was feeding into a broken system which actively penalizes people like me. So, I refuse to pay it. All told, I and the other 99 strikers, who come from all over the country, hold millions of dollars of debt.
So many of us on strike – and many of you reading this, I’m sure – have similar stories and struggles. We took on debt because we wanted to learn more, to get a good job, to do better for ourselves and our families, to make our parents proud, to do important or good or valuable work, to achieve in a country that told us the best way to do this was to go to school and get a degree. Because we weren’t wealthy, we had no choice but to borrow. That debt hangs over us like a cloud, stopping us from buying homes, having families, investing in ourselves or our communities, doing meaningful jobs that don’t quite pay enough, or moving up in work or life.
Today, more than 45 million people hold $1.7tn in student debt. Black and brown people owe the overwhelming majority, including many who weren’t able to graduate. Even before the pandemic, a million people defaulted on their loans every year. Post-Covid, it’s even harder for people to afford their monthly payments.
The cost of trying to succeed in this country, especially if you’re from a community of color or working-class family like I am, is often a lifetime of student loan debt. That cost has ballooned over the past 40 years. Not that long ago, people could go to college without being buried by debt. Higher education was basically free or low tuition. But now, student debt is a tax on poor people who dare to pursue social mobility. That’s why the amount of student loan debt increased by 100% over the past 10 years. This is not a problem that’s existed for the entire history of our higher education system; it’s a new problem created by bad policies.
The rise of student loans in this country is closely tied to systemic racism. The student debt crisis has
roots in the Reagan administration, which famously despised any programs that helped working people, especially Black and brown ones. The administration cut federal education spending, which meant less financial aid. Since then, these cuts have continued nationally and locally. In the 1970s, states paid for more than50% of college expenses, but by the early 2010s, that number had dropped to less than one-third. Budget cuts force students to take on loans, turning higher education into a debt trap that punishes people for simply wanting to learn more and improve their chances in life.
As the result of grassroots pressure, Biden and other Democrats now support debt cancellation as part of a Covid relief plan, but the figures thrown around, like $10,000 or $50,000, are simply not enough. Even abolishing $50,000 of debt would still leave out nearly 25% of student debt holders. To meet this urgent need – a global pandemic, millions of people without jobs or facing eviction, growing food insecurity and ongoing threats from white supremacists and violence – a dramatic and bold policy is required. That policy is full cancellation.
The data is clear: full student debt cancellation would put billions of dollars back into our country. It would support local communities and jobs, growing our economy. It would help families thrive. And, it would be steps toward racial justice, although there’s so much further to go.
But this isn’t just a question of numbers. The moral imperative is clear, too. Cancelling student debt would reduce stress and provide relief to so many, across the US, across the political spectrum, and across social backgrounds.
Our government has cancelled debts for billionaires and corporations before – so why not regular people trying to make ends meet?
Many people talk about debt as something you take on, and something a borrower is solely responsible for. But, much like how low wages can usually only be raised by a militant strike, I know that the problem of mounting debt isn’t something that can be fixed by individuals alone – we need collective action to push for deeper change. It’s the responsibility of those who perpetuated this problem through decades of failed policy, and who have financially benefited from the struggle of 45 million Americans, to do something about it and resolve the crisis for future generations.
Student debt is not an individual problem. It’s a political problem rooted in reactionary Republican ideology and systemic racism. A political problem demands a political solution. That’s why I am taking a stand with 99 others and asking the Democrats to stand with us and pass full student debt cancellation immediately.
Decades ago, Congress granted the president the authority to cancel all student loan debt, with a simple flick of a pen. Yes, cancelling student loan debt won’t fix our broken education system, and it’s not the only stimulus or support our communities need. But it’s part of it. For the millions of us who hold student loan debt, it would be lifechanging. It’s one step toward justice. And it’s a step the Democrats need to take now.
Until then, I’ll be on strike.
Student debt is not an individual problem. It’s a political problem rooted in reactionary
Republican ideology and systemic racism