"The justification for student debt as the primary way we pay for college has been in part based on the assumption that we’ll have consumer protections in place, and we’ll try to make it as painless as possible for people."
The dramatic rise in student loan debt has placed unacceptable risk on working-class families and on people of color, who must take on more debt for the same degree as white students.
"The potential of this plan is that it increases public investment back to levels we saw when college was much more affordable, and it pegs it to a price for students."
New Brief Shows Young Americans Need Wall Street Reform
Washington — Young Americans face "lasting damage" from the dual crises in the financial sector and in personal finance, making it urgent that Congress pass strong financial reform legislation.
Washington — SenatorAl Franken (D-MN) has introduced a financial-reform amendment that finally addresses the root problem of the credit rating agencies—their built-in conflict of interest. The "Restore Integrity to Credit Ratings" amendment, co-sponsored by Senators Charles Schumer (D-NY) and Bill Nelson (D-FL), substantially embraces a remedy set forth in a recent Demos policy paper on this subject.
Cleveland — Ohio's young adults will continue to face a tough economy--one ravaged not only by recession but also by 30 years of declining opportunity and security for all but the most highly educated and affluent, according to a new report by Policy Matters Ohio and the national policy center Demos.
“If you compare this to some of the other gifts given in higher education, it’s incredibly stark, and I would hope points us to a smarter, better model of philanthropy where people’s lives are genuinely being transformed.”
“Your income or your family’s wealth is extremely predictive of whether you’re going to go college at all and certainly what program you’re going to do."
“Not only are students of color more likely to borrow more for a degree, and borrow in higher amounts for the same degree, but they’re more likely to struggle to repay student loans than white students."
The counter to this neoliberal vision involves, then, a more thorough moral critique—and a more transformative policy agenda—that tackles the underlying forces of corporate power, market inequities, structural racism, and anti-democratic political institutions. That progressives are finally talking in these expansive terms represents a potentially transformative inflection point in American politics.
While Demos celebrates the legislation’s strong mandate on emissions reductions, the governor’s exclusion of community investment mandates and labor standards prolongs the fight for climate justice in New York and nationwide.