STUDENT LOAN DEBT DOUBLED OVER THE PAST DECADE, SURPASSING $1.5 TRILLION, SECOND ONLY TO MORTGAGE DEBT!

The New Jersey state legislature has opted to protect millionaires, billionaires, and corporations by refusing to pass a Millionaires’ Tax. While the wealthy are given a pass, working-class families are told that hard work and going to school will increase their opportunities for wealth. The truth is that no matter how hard you work, a college degree is more likely to create debt than it is to create wealth.  

The crisis of affordability in higher education is being driven by corporate interests taking advantage of changes to the federal student loan program which has increased revenues for for-profit universities and colleges while reducing funding to public universities and colleges and forcing tuition increases. As tuition increases, students at traditional public or private non-profit universities and colleges are taking on bigger student loans only to find that the jobs in their chosen career fail to offer the incomes they need to make ends meet.

Students who attend for-profit colleges are more likely to need to borrow for their education and tend to borrow more than students attending traditional public or private, non-profit schools. For many for-profit students, the consequences can be financially devastating – particularly for students of color who are more likely to attend for-profit schools. For-profit universities have lower graduation rates and for-profit students are more likely to default on student loans, and face measurably weaker employment opportunities.

Just like the foreclosure crisis and the medical debt crisis, the student debt crisis has been manufactured by Wall Street to create profit for private interests by extracting wealth from taxpayers, low-income, working-class communities and communities of color.

TAKE ACTION!

There are three ways you can plug into NJCU’s Student Debt Campaign:

1. Sign Up! We’ll keep you informed about meetings, actions, resources, and news about the campaign.
2. Tell your story! By sharing your story, you are countering a narrative that is currently controlled by wealthy and powerful special interests.
3. Take a Survey! Are you currently paying off student loans? Or are you currently enrolled in school and accruing student debt? Or are you one of the many people who have postponed or chosen not to pursue college?