How Student Debt Activists WON In Battle With Conservative Democrats

2 years ago
30

Student debt activists had to somehow win over a President that has historically not been friendly to debtors. How did they do it?

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I mean it's proof that the Biden administration can be pushed on issues that are this common sense as well. like I mean when you first began I know you've been working with some democrats and powers that be to really advocate for broad student debt cancellation. What were some of the reactions that you got within the democratic party? was it you know from the beginning of your activism on this topic 15 years ago or whenever you began to now what was some of the change that you saw in in in the response from democrats especially like a democrat like joe Biden who is as conservative as you can kind of get or at least was perceived that way going into the white house in the modern democratic party? I think it's really important to name Joe Biden's allegiances throughout his career. I mean he has very much been a servant of creditor interest. He was a key player in the 2005 bankruptcy reform bill where he got a lot of bipartisanship. You know there's a lot of republican support and that bill actually stripped critical bankruptcy protections from student debtors. He comes from Delaware, the credit card capital of the world. so it's I think we have to also be you know really. Who were we pushing at this moment? We were pushing you to know a man who has not been a friend of debtors historically. and you know that this is absolutely a movement that came from the grassroots. and Many of the legal arguments for debt cancellation both for students of predatory for-profit colleges and for broader relief also came from outsiders. And then the pickup came because we were under the Obama administration so when Biden was vice president we successfully forced the department of edge to start a sorry department of education to start issuing a trickle of relief for people who had gone to a now-defunct predatory for-profit chain called Corinthian.

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