The silver lining to a messy year
It’s not hard to see why so many people are eager to move on from 2017. We saw the impacts of climate change play out in realtime as hurricanes battered the east coast and wildfires ravaged the west. The federal government attempted — and failed at least for now — to ban muslim immigrants from the country and transgender soldiers from the military. Protections for nearly 800,000 DREAMers were thrown into limbo. And the student debt crisis soared to new heights, now totaling in at $1.4 trillion owed by 44 million Americans.
So there’s your healthy dose of doom and gloom, but there’s another side to all of this. As we’re forced to confront dire challenges head on, people are more motivated than ever to get involved and make an impact. And young people are leading the charge.
With the beginning of Colorado’s legislative session last Wednesday, we have a chance to channel our collective frustration into progress. New Era will be raising the profile of the issues that matter most to millennials, training young leaders to testify on legislation, and mobilizing people to take action and make their voices heard in the halls of the capitol.
One of our biggest priorities this session is tackling the student debt crisis. Over the past decade there has been a 170 percent increase in student debt. Taking on debt is a huge obstacle to higher education for many, and especially students of color and those from lower income backgrounds, who are more likely to default on their loans.
The economic impacts of student debt on our generation will be long lasting and far reaching. It’s time for our representatives to show they’re serious about fixing this broken system. We think a good start is increasing transparency and accountability of student loan servicers — the people tasked with giving students complete, accurate information about their loans. As it turns out they haven’t been doing such a great job. Actually, in many cases they’ve pretty much just screwed us over. Nothing millennials aren’t used to (see: global climate change), but still kind of sucks, you know?
New Era leadership development program graduate Linsi Bowers experienced this first-hand when her servicers gave her incorrect information that she could convert private student loans into a federal income-based program to cut costs. And this isn’t a unique case — across the board servicers are failing to help us understand our loans and repayment options.
That’s why we’re fighting to pass the Student Loan Servicer Accountability Bill. And while it might not have the flashiest name (honestly it’s in the running for most boring-sounding bill of all time), it’s worth getting excited about. This bill will require state oversight of all student loan servicers, setting basic standards to keep them from shirking on their obligation to borrowers.
This isn’t a magical fix-all for our student debt problems. It’s only a starting point. We still need to guarantee loan forgiveness for people going into public service careers, make the process of taking out loans more transparent, and cut the outrageous cost of college overall, among other policy aims. Don’t worry, we’re working on all of that too. But better oversight of loan servicers is a top priority, given that it will create much-needed accountability for the loan industry, and we have a real shot to make it happen this year.
Of course, we’re not just thinking about student debt. This session, we’ll work on climate change, healthcare access, protecting immigrants’ rights, and defending and strengthening voting rights and election access. That is to say, we’ll be busy.
The many challenges we faced in 2017 have not gone away. But we’re ready to take them on. If you’re interested in getting involved, check out our website or shoot us an email. Make sure to subscribe to our email list to stay up to date on the session, what’s coming up in the election year, and who we’re rooting for in RuPaul’s Drag Race All Stars Season 3. Okay, maybe not that last one, but subscribe anyway.
