Tag Archives: Student Lending

photo of a student borrower looking sadly at the sky - Photo by Matese Fields on Unsplash

Statement: AFR Applauds Schumer, Warren Resolution Calling on Trump to Cancel Student Debt

We applaud Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer and Senator Elizabeth Warren’s Resolution calling on the Trump Administration to cancel student debt. Cancelling student debt will provide both immediate financial relief to millions of Americans, and crucial economic stimulus for everyone during this protracted crisis — boosting GDP and job creation at a time of intense labor shocks and economic contraction.

students in graduation cap and gowns - Photo by Caleb Woods on Unsplash

AFR Supports Rep. Alma Adams’ Amendment to the National Defense Authorization Act

“Rep. Adams’ amendment gives borrowers a chance to recover on the same timeline the economy is projected to need to return to pre-coronavirus productivity. Granting the same CARES Act suspension of student loan payments to private student loan borrowers, and extending the suspension to September 2021 will mean more funds for food, medicine, and basic household needs.”

Education Secretary Betsy Devos at the White House on July 9, 2020.Kevin Lamarque / Reuters

Oped: Betsy Devos’ refusal to honor student loan forgiveness shows her disrespect for the law

“Even in a government full of people without the integrity, will or courage to do the right thing, most of the agencies stand down — or at least pretend to — when ordered by the courts. But not the Department of Education under Secretary Betsy DeVos, who seems to have been only further animated by her losses in court over her efforts to deny the rightful debt cancellations owed to people who attended predatory, for-profit colleges, borrowers who are disproportionately women and people of color, and often now working in front-line jobs.”

a student with books - Photo by Element5 Digital on Unsplash

Joint Statement: 103 Organizations Agree – Congress Needs to Cancel Student Debt

Today, 103 civil rights, consumer and advocacy organizations and think tanks sent a joint letter to House and Senate leadership, urging them to include student debt cancellation in the next economic stimulus package.

Led by American for Financial Reform, Demos, Center for Responsible Lending and Freedom to Prosper, the letter stresses the ways that if left unaddressed, the student debt trap will deepen our current recession, slow our economic recovery, exacerbate inequality, and deepen a crisis already facing black and brown borrowers and families.