The social unrest roiling Quebec is colour-coded red. One cannot miss the hundreds of thousands of people with cloth of the colour pinned to their coats and satchels; the stickers pasted on street poles and storefront mannequins; and the sheets fluttering from balconies and windows. The red squares – punning visually on a French expression to be squarely in the red, or in debt – are a gesture of solidarity with university and college students on a massive general strike against government tuition fee hikes.
USSA: The Private Student Loan Companies Are Telling Congress They Should Come First AGAIN
From:
United States Student Association
What's happening:
The Private Student Loan Companies Are Telling Congress They Should Come First AGAIN.
Today the New York Times reported a story about the Private Loan Industry & their friends in Congress planning a large scale effort to block President Obama's plan to support students & working families going to college.
Over a month ago President Obama addressed the nation and proposed some of the firmest commitments to education that we've seen in generations. His bold plan promised all of us that the government would permanently fund the Pell Grant program so that anyone who wanted to go to college and needed help paying for it would be able to get the support they needed without taking out bad loans that would put them into decades of debt.
Today the private loan companies came out of the shadows to tell Congress that they must choose between investing in the America's future or funding the private loan companies that helped get us into this economic crisis in the first place. Sallie Mae is hiring powerful lobbyists to secure funding in the federal budget in attempt to block President Obama's plan to make the Pell Grant dependable for students and working families. This past year, Sallie Mae awarded its chief executive $4.6 million in cash and stock and its vice chairman more than $13.2 million in cash and stock, including the use of a company plane while students are drowning in debt.
Our country shouldn't be forced to choose between the Pell Grant and funding the private loan companies - we all deserve a fair chance and an equal opportunity to recover from the economic crisis we are in. Join us in telling members of Congress that WE NEED TO INVEST IN EDUCATION in order to rebuild America's economy and our future.
What you can do:
Click here to tell Congress we must put students before private loan companies:
http://www.unionvoice.org/campaign/studentloans
For more information:
The U.S. Students Association page is at http://www.usstudents.org/aid-for-students-not-banks
