Thread by @StrikeDebt

There's a recurring talking point used to oppose student debt cancelation — and wow have we heard it a lot. Repeated by Republicans and Democrats alike, there is a "concern" that while canceling student debt may be good, it won't solve the "root" of the problem.

Ok. So thread.

Let's start here and say it plainly: They are correct!

If all student debt is canceled today, future students —mostly low-income— will still have to debt-finance education. They will still have to mortgage their future. That's bad!

This. Is. Why. We. Push. For. Free. College.

Free College SOLVES the "root" of the problem. That's what's necessary. We're fighting for debt cancelation AND free college, as are most of us! There is no need — no need at all — to juxtapose these fights and pit solutions against each other. It's both/and.

So why has the push to #CancelStudentDebt taken center stage recently? Well, in part bc of our organizing, and the work of other orgs/people. But there's a key reason: Biden can eliminate the debt w/ an executive order. All on his own. No congressional approval needed!

~Quick side note here ~

It would literally take an executive order from the President. In fact, we took it upon ourselves to write the executive order for you, @POTUS.
debtcollective.org/flick-of-a-pen

People know this. People know how dysfunctional congress is. We've all seen Manchin and Sinema throw temper tantrums. So while we would *love* Congress to pass a bill to make College free, it seems unlikely in this Congress. In fact, they failed to pass free community college.

So, yeah. That's why we take issue with folks like Mitt Romney and others who are so quick to say we need to "solve the root issue" of debt-financed education but have *no political will* to ensure that College For All legislation will pass. It's a scapegoat.

In reality, these issues are very aligned. Education must be free, and we can also make it retroactively free by canceling the existing debt.

We got over 1.5k professors to call for cancelation AND free college.
businessinsider.com/read-why-1000-…

In 2019, our members spoke at the introduction of the College For All Act years ago — alongside @BernieSanders @AOC @PramilaJayapal @IlhanMN and others — to demand full student debt cancelation AND tuition-free college.

WATCH:

Our Co-Founder @astradisastra's film, You Are Not A Loan, brought together some of the smartest Debt Collective minds to think through cancelation and how to make college free...and freeing.

WATCH:

Never let someone tell you the people fighting for cancelation aren't thinking about the root of the problem. We actually have the answer. And it's not fixing (again) IDR, PSLF and other broken repayment programs. It's not less interest. It's not literacy.

It's College For All.