Thursday, January 03, 2013

GP RELEASE Green Party calls for Student Debt Forgiveness, urges student protests against tuition costs‏

GREEN PARTY OF THE UNITED STATES
http://www.gp.org
 
For Immediate Release:
Thursday, January 3, 2013
 
Contacts:
Scott McLarty, Media Coordinator, 202-904-7614, mclarty@greens.org
Starlene Rankin, Media Coordinator, 916-995-3805, starlene@gp.org
 
 
Green Party calls for a Student Debt Jubilee, urges student protests
against skyrocketing tuition costs
 
• Green Party Speakers Bureau: Greens available to speak on education
policy: http://www.gp.org/speakers/speakers-education.php
 
 
WASHINGTON, DC -- Green Party leaders spoke out on education at the
beginning of the New Year and called for a student debt jubilee and
free tuition to state colleges and universities in 2013.
 
• Jill Stein, 2012 Green Party nominee for President: "A student debt
jubilee, with forgiveness for all student loans, would be more than
just a New Year's gift for students and former students enduring
crushing student loan debt while facing dim prospects in today's job
market. Freeing students from the debt trap would be comparable to the
GI Bill, enacted after World War II, which sent millions of veterans
to college and helped jumpstart America's postwar period of
unprecedented prosperity. Instead of buying up $40 billion a month in
toxic mortgage securities, we should be buying up student loans and
forgiving them. Instead of bailing out the banks, whose waste, fraud,
and abuse caused the economic crisis, we should be bailing out the
students who are the victims of that crisis."
 
• Alex Shantz, Youth Caucus delegate to the Green Party's National
Committee and co-chair for the Green Party of California: "Students in
the U.S. are being cheated. Skyrocketing tuition costs have burdened
today's students with tens of thousands of dollars in debt, sometimes
hundreds of thousands of dollars as interest compounds. Financial
sector companies, including Sallie Mae, have turned higher education
into a scheme for indentured servitude, with many students stuck in
low-paying jobs. The current system is creating compliant workers for
Big Business and is resegregating our schools by race and economic
class. Meanwhile, students in Europe enjoy free or low-cost college
tuition at state-run colleges and universities."
 
• Samantha Rocknowski, co-chair of the Green Party's Youth Caucus: "I
have about $43,000 in student loans, and I'm still without a full-time
job a year after finishing school, for all the money I spent getting a
higher education. There are millions of college graduates with debts
like mine or worse
(http://libertystreeteconomics.newyorkfed.org/2012/03/grading-student-loans.html).
We need a student movement against the debt trap and mounting tuition
costs -- a movement that's comparable to the student protests of the
1960s. Jill Stein made the $1 trillion student debt crisis and the
need for drastic change a top priority in her campaign as the Green
Party's 2012 presidential nominee. This debt is a drag on the U.S.
economy, while bipartisan austerity measures, combined with high
military spending and tax cuts for the wealthy, are only creating more
debt and making more students and graduates helpless. We urge students
in the U.S. to stand up and protest -- like the students in Quebec who
demonstrated en masse against tuition hikes in 2012 and won
concessions."
 
See also:
 
"Eliminate tuition, student debt, says Stein as campus protests spread
nationally"
Jill Stein for President, March 1, 2012
http://www.jillstein.org/occupy_education
 
"Higher education in peril: Students take a stand for the Green Party"
Jill Stein for President, November 4, 2012
http://www.jillstein.org/higher_education
 
"Green Party recognizes and welcomes Green Youth Caucus"
Green Party press release, December 5, 2012
http://www.gp.org/press/pr-national.php?ID=573
 
"Is Education a Human Right or a Privilege for the Wealthy?"
By Kevin Zeese and Margaret Flowers, Truthout, December 13, 2012
http://truth-out.org/news/item/13299-is-education-a-human-right-or-a-privilege-for-the-wealthy
 
Youth Caucus
http://www.gp.org/caucuses/youth
http://www.facebook.com/GPUSyouth
 
 
MORE INFORMATION
 
Green Party of the United States http://www.gp.org
202-319-7191
• Green candidate database and campaign information:
http://www.gp.org/elections.shtml
• News Center http://www.gp.org/newscenter.shtml
• Speakers Bureau http://www.gp.org/speakers
• Ballot Access Page http://www.gp.org/2012/ballot-access.html
• Video Page http://www.gp.org/video/index.php
• Green Papers http://www.greenpapers.net/
• Google+ http://www.gp.org/google
• Twitter http://twitter.com/gpus
• Livestream Channel http://www.livestream.com/greenpartyus
• GP-TV Twitter page http://www.gp.org/twitter
• Facebook page http://www.gp.org/facebook
 
Green Pages: The official publication of record of the Green Party of
the United States
http://gp.org/greenpages-blog
 
 
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