May 2012

by Maria Jennings, Student Labor Action Project organizer

My name is Maria, and I am part of the 94% - the 94% of students that are forced to take on student loan debt in order to graduate from college. I am one of the thirty-six million people who have indebted themselves to the federal government and Sallie Mae.

I will graduate from my public university with around ten thousand dollars of debt, a number that could easily double or triple with interest rates. My parents are helping me as much as they can – even when my mother was forced to forego her own dream of returning to college, and my father forced to work more and more hours despite his declining health.

Many of my friends will graduate with numbers as high as seventy thousand or even a hundred thousand dollars. Many students have been forced to forego college completely. It’s not that my peers and I cannot afford college – it is that college has become simply unaffordable for the overwhelming majority of students.

Jobs with Justice is among the protestors at the shareholder meeting of JP Morgan Chase Bank in Tampa, Florida this morning.  They are among the many calling for Jamie Diamond’s resignation, not for the $2.3 billion trade losses to investors, but because of his on-going insistence on gambling the homes and jobs away of everyday people.

This most recent investment disaster is yet another symptom of how out of control Wall Street has gotten.  It begs the need for more regulation, such as the Financial Transactions Tax which would make bankers think twice about such high risk trading.

“These are not just numbers on a screen,” said Denise Diaz- director of Central Florida Jobs with Justice.  “These are people’s retirement funds, homes, and lifelong savings.  Jamie Diamond has gambled with our lives.”

As graduation approaches for many college students this spring, the outlook for post-graduation will be dire. Instead of, “What do you plan to do next?” the questions are: “How much student debt are you graduating with?” or “Do you think you’ll be able to find a job?” The situation has grown grim for recent graduates. On top of 1 out of every 2 graduates being jobless or unemployed, students will graduate with an average of $25,000 in debt this year. On April 25th, student debt even surpassed the one trillion dollar mark – making student debt larger than credit card debt and auto loans.

The largest profiteer off of student debt, Sallie Mae, has been leading the crusade to make a buck off of students suffering the worst economic recession since the 1920’s. Already spending over one million dollars on lobbying in 2012, Sallie Mae has been one of the most aggressive lobbyists on the Hill using money received from students, to allow private lenders to use predatory practices, including hidden fees that further bury students in debt.