Reduce the Rate: Rev. Jesse Jackson Joins Movement Against Crippling Rates on Student Loans : Indybay

As the Obama administration continues to spend hundreds of billions of dollars to bail out the nation’s banking system, a growing movement is calling on the government to do more to help students struggling to pay for college.

According to the College Board, the average cost of four years at a private college is now a staggering $136,000. Four years at a public university, on average, will set you back $57,000.

In order to pay for the rapidly increasing tuitions students were forced to borrow a total of $85 billion during the last school year – up from $41 billion 10 years ago. The average student now leaves college with $20,000 in debt.

We play an excerpt from the forthcoming documentary “Default: The Student Loan Documentary,” a film by Serge Bakalian and Aurora Meneghello.

We are joined by two guests who have been closely following this issue. The Rev. Jesse Jackson is with us in the Firehouse studio. He is the founder of the Rainbow / PUSH Coalition and a longtime civil rights activist. He recently launched a campaign called Reduce The Rate urging the Obama administration to slash the interest rates on student loans. And Alan Collinge joins us in Seattle. He is founder of Student Loan Justice dot org and author of the new book “The Student Loan Scam: The Most Oppressive Debt in U.S. History–and How We Can Fight Back.”

Rev. Jesse Jackson, Civil rights leader and founder of the Rainbow / PUSH Coalition. He recently started the website ReduceTheRate.org.

Alan Collinge, founder of StudentLoanJustice.org and author of the new book “The Student Loan Scam: The Most Oppressive Debt in U.S. History–and How We Can Fight Back.”

Reduce the Rate: Rev. Jesse Jackson Joins Movement Against Crippling Rates on Student Loans

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