2022-08-25 11:47:30

Cancel It All: Debt Collective's Astra Taylor on Biden Plan & Need for Full Student Debt Relief

In a much-anticipated move, President Biden has signed an executive order Wednesday for student debt relief that could help more than 40 million borrowers by canceling up to $20,000 of their federal loans. Many advocates for canceling student debt say Biden's plan doesn't go far enough, while Republicans decry the plan as "student debt socialism." Democracy Now! speaks to Astra Taylor, writer, filmmaker and co-director of the Debt Collective, a union for debtors and one of the original advocates for a debt jubilee that would cancel all student debt. Despite the mixed reaction, "this is incredibly significant when you think about where we began as a movement not that long ago," says Taylor, who also notes that debt strikes and the fight for full cancellation will continue. We also air part of "Freedom Dreams: Black Women and the Student Debt Crisis," a new short documentary from The Intercept that profiles Black women educators and activists struggling under the weight of tens of thousands, or even hundreds of thousands, of dollars in student loan debt. It is directed by Astra Taylor and Erick Stoll, narrated by former Ohio state Senator Nina Turner, and was supported by the Economic Hardship Reporting Project.

Democracy Now! produces a daily, global, independent news hour hosted by award-winning journalists Amy Goodman and Juan González. Our reporting includes breaking daily news headlines and in-depth interviews with people on the front lines of the world’s most pressing issues. 

On DN!, you’ll hear a diversity of voices speaking for themselves, providing a unique and sometimes provocative perspective on global events.

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#CancelStudentLoanDebt federal student loan payments Free Speech TV FSTV Student Loan Forgiveness Student Loan Payments

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