Students Blockade for $150 Billion, Rally for Hoosier ‘Freedom’

[rhett o rick]

Students Blockade for $150 Billion, Rally for Hoosier ‘Freedom’ and Rise for Martese Johnson

The Populist Movement is growing in spite of being ignored by the Corp-Media and Conservative Democrats.

For the past month, the United States Student Association has been leading the charge to oppose $150 billion in cuts to the Pell Grant, subsidized loan, income-based repayment and Public Service Loan Forgiveness programs. Beginning March 16, students across the country made hundreds of phone calls to House and Senate Budget Committee members. On March 18, USSA students, staff and allies disrupted the Senate Budget Committee and were arrested and charged for speaking out. The week of March 23, we sent more than 13,000 emails through an online petition, culminating in an action on March 27 at the Capitol, where more than 200 students and allies, including Senator Bernie Sanders, turned out to oppose the cuts—and ten students were arrested for blocking the intersection of First and Maryland. On March 30, 250 students converged on Capitol Hill for a lobbying blitz. We are continuing to build support against these cuts while mobilizing more and bigger actions—not only until Congress rolls them back, but until higher education is free.

This post is part of The Nation’s biweekly student movement dispatch. As part of the StudentNation blog, each dispatch hosts first-person updates on youth organizing. For recent dispatches, check out March 5 and March 16. Contact [e-mail] with tips. Edited by James Cersonsky (@cersonsky).

More at: http://www.thenation.com/blog/202809/students-blockade-150-billion-rally-hoosier-freedom-and-rise-martese-johnson

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[Enthusiast]

1. The government should not be in the business of profiting on student loans.

Just more shit in the post Dubya era.

[rhett o rick]

2. Exactly and no one should be. And the costs for education should be

lower.