With graduation season underway, students across the country are preparing to launch into the “real world” with an eye toward using their talents to build better futures. And they are not going to let student loans hold them back.

America’s massive student debt crisis has left 44 million people across all demographics scrambling to pay nearly $2 trillion dollars in debt. This student debt crisis hurts everyone, but with compounding effects from prohibitive housing prices, low wages, rampant inflation, and back-to-back recessions, young people are experiencing even greater challenges grasping their slice of the American Dream. In an effort to protect the prosperity of their future, students and young worker leaders are fighting to pursue their dreams without the specter of debt.

• The Alliance for Youth Action’s “Dreams not Debt” campaign is organizing students across the country to engage their representatives at the local level and drive policy change around student debt, including putting pressure on the Biden Administration to keep its debt cancellation campaign promise.
• In 2006, a group of recent college grads who were fed up with the status quo of Colorado politics started New Era Colorado, with a mission is to engage, educate, and train a new generation of active young leaders in Colorado. Their “Broke AF” campaign spurred the passage of Colorado’s Student Loan Equity Act which protects borrowers by outlawing common lender practices like robo-signing, auto-defaults, and harassment of family members after the death or disability of the borrower.
• San Francisco Rising has developed a school-to-organizing pathway that equips students with strategic, culturally-relevant organizing skills to help communities of color advocate for their interests. Summer Rising Fellows across the bay area are learning how to engage the community to demand free public college for all and student debt cancellation.

These organizations are just a few examples that demonstrate young peoples’ determination to impact policy-making, spread awareness, and garner community support around reforming a higher education system that’s failing their generation. Join us in encouraging and celebrating this important work that aligns with our efforts to ensure shared prosperity for all.

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