{"id":1837,"date":"2022-08-25T10:41:40","date_gmt":"2022-08-25T17:41:40","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.nlg.org\/los-angeles\/?p=1837"},"modified":"2022-09-08T10:18:33","modified_gmt":"2022-09-08T17:18:33","slug":"nlg-las-response-to-bidens-student-loan-plan","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.nlg.org\/los-angeles\/2022\/08\/25\/nlg-las-response-to-bidens-student-loan-plan\/","title":{"rendered":"NLG-LA Response to Biden’s Student Loan Plan"},"content":{"rendered":"

Media Contact: Christopher Chavis<\/strong><\/p>\n

Phone: 310-383-9407<\/strong><\/p>\n

Email:\u00a0chris@nlg-la.org<\/strong><\/p>\n

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE: August 25, 2022<\/strong><\/p>\n

Los Angeles, CA \u2013 The National Lawyers Guild \u2013 Los Angeles (NLG-LA) has strong concerns regarding President Joe Biden\u2019s most recent plan regarding student debt relief. While we applaud $10,000 of debt relief as a first step, this action does not go far enough and does not do enough to address the underlying systemic issues that drive the student debt crisis.<\/p>\n

Black and Indigenous People of Color (BIPOC) are most acutely affected by the student loan crisis. These statistics are staggering. According to the Education Data Initiative, Black
\ngraduates owe $25,000 more on average than white graduates. Further, American Indian and Alaska Native (AI\/AN) graduates owe the highest monthly payment amounts on average. While we acknowledge and appreciate that Pell Grant recipients will receive $20,000 in debt relief, the proposed forgiveness amounts do not address these underlying inequities.<\/p>\n

This issue is especially important in high cost of living areas, such as Los Angeles, where people are already stretching their paychecks to pay for housing. Any dollar spent towards student loan repayment is a dollar that could be used for housing or other necessities. Many students from low-income communities pursue an education in order to serve their communities as teachers, social workers, lawyers, and in other capacities. Students who lack intergenerational wealth should not be penalized for attending college in order to better themselves and their communities. While we acknowledge the President\u2019s plan to further cap the\u00a0percentage of a person\u2019s income that must be used to repay student loan debt, more needs to be done to remedy the problem.<\/p>\n

Christopher Chavis, NLG-LA\u2019s Executive Director said: \u201cThe Biden Administration has taken an important first step in addressing the student loan crisis but we do want to emphasize that this is only the first step and more needs to be done to address the underlying systemic issues that are driving this crisis. We look forward to seeing the President\u2019s next steps.\u201d<\/p>\n

President Biden must take more aggressive steps to address the student loan crisis, including full forgiveness of student loan debt and a push towards making higher education available free of charge. Access to opportunity should not be cost prohibitive to anyone and knowledge must not be commodified.<\/p>\n

About the National Lawyers Guild of Los Angeles
\nThe National Lawyers Guild (NLG) of Los Angeles seeks to unite lawyers, law students, legal workers and jailhouse lawyers to function as an effective force in the service of the people, to the end that human rights shall be regarded as more sacred than property interests. For more information, please visit\u00a0nlg-la.org<\/a>.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Media Contact: Christopher Chavis Phone: 310-383-9407 Email:\u00a0chris@nlg-la.org FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE: August 25, 2022 Los Angeles, CA \u2013 The National Lawyers Guild \u2013 Los Angeles (NLG-LA) has strong concerns regarding President Joe Biden\u2019s most recent plan regarding student debt relief. While we applaud $10,000 of debt relief as a first step, this action does not go […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":20942,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_kad_blocks_custom_css":"","_kad_blocks_head_custom_js":"","_kad_blocks_body_custom_js":"","_kad_blocks_footer_custom_js":"","footnotes":"","_members_access_role":[],"_members_access_error":""},"categories":[3],"tags":[25],"class_list":["post-1837","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-news","tag-press-release"],"aioseo_notices":[],"aioseo_head":"\n\t\t\n\t\n\t\n\t\n\t\n\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t