Sen. Bernie Sanders wants to cancel all student debt within six months and make college tuition-free and debt-free moving forward. His is the latest plan from a presidential candidate addressing an issue the AFT has pushed for decades—college affordability—and AFT President Randi Weingarten was on hand during the announcement June 24.
Flanked by Reps. Pramila Jayapal and Ilhan Omar, who will introduce a companion bill in the House of Representatives, as well as Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, Weingarten and several individuals who told their personal student-debt stories, Sanders said his goal is to make “a full and complete education a human right in America.”
Student debt has hit $1.7 trillion nationally; 45 million Americans owe money for student loans. “In the wealthiest country in the history of the world, it is simply not acceptable that our younger generation, through no fault of their own, will have a lower standard of living than their parents—more debt, lower wages and less likelihood of owning their own homes,” said Sanders. “That is why this proposal completely eliminates student debt and ends the absurdity of sentencing an entire generation to a lifetime of debt for the crime of doing the right thing—that is, going out and getting a higher education.”
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