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Weekly Address: President Obama – A Student Aid Bill of Rights

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The President’s Weekly Address post is also an Open News Thread. Feel free to share other news stories in the comments.

 

From the White House – Weekly Address

In this week’s address, President Obama laid out his vision for quality, affordable higher education for all Americans.

Today, a college degree is the surest ticket to the middle class and beyond, but it has also never been more expensive. Everyone, from elected officials to universities to business leaders, has a part to play in making college affordable for all students. The President has already made historic investments in college education affordability, and earlier this week, he announced a Student Aid Bill of Rights – a set of guiding principles behind his vision for affordable education.

In his address the President urged everyone to visit WhiteHouse.gov/CollegeOpportunity and sign this declaration, because together we can ensure students who work hard for a college degree do not graduate saddled with debt.

Transcript: Weekly Address: A Student Aid Bill of Rights

Hi, everybody.  Earlier this week, I visited with students at Georgia Tech to talk about the importance of higher education in the new economy, and how we can make it more affordable.  

In an economy increasingly built on innovation, the most important skill you can sell is your knowledge.  That’s why higher education is, more than ever, the surest ticket to the middle class.  

But just when it’s never been more important, it’s also never been more expensive.  The average undergrad who borrows to pay for college ends up graduating with about $28,000 in student loan debt.

That’s why my Administration has worked hard to make college more affordable.  We expanded tax credits and Pell Grants, enacted the largest reform to student loan programs in history, and fought to keep interest rates on student loans low.  We’ve acted to let millions of graduates cap loan payments at 10 percent of their income, so they don’t have to choose between paying the rent and paying back their debt. I’ve sent Congress my plan to bring the cost of community college down to zero – because two years of higher education should be as free and universal as high school is today.

But all of us – elected officials, universities, business leaders – everybody – needs to do more to bring down college costs. Which is why this week, I unveiled another way that we can help more Americans afford college.  It doesn’t involve any new spending or bureaucracy.  It’s a simple declaration of values – what I call a Student Aid Bill of Rights.  It says that every student deserves access to a quality, affordable education.  Every student should be able to access the resources to pay for college. Every borrower has the right to an affordable repayment plan.  And every borrower has the right to quality customer service, reliable information, and fair treatment, even if they struggle to repay their loans.  

That’s it.  Just a few simple principles.  But if we all rally around these principles, there’s a lot that colleges, lenders, and the people you sent to Washington and to your state legislatures can do to realize them across the country.  

So if you believe in a Student Aid Bill of Rights that will help more Americans pay for a quality education, I’m asking you to visit WhiteHouse.gov/CollegeOpportunity.  Sign your name to this declaration.  Tell your families, and your friends, and fellow students.  I’m going to ask Members of Congress, and lenders, and as many business leaders as I can find.  Because making sure that students aren’t saddled with debt before they even get started in life is in all our interests.  

In America, a higher education cannot be a privilege reserved for only the few.  It has to be available to everybody who’s willing to work for it.

Thanks, and have a great weekend.

Bolding added.

~


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7 comments

  1. JanF

    From the president’s address in Georgia:

    … today, a college degree is the surest ticket to the middle class and beyond.  It’s the key to getting a good job that pays a good income.  And it offers a measure of security, because a college degree tells employers that you don’t just have one set of skills; that you’ve got the continuous capacity to learn new skills, which is going to be particularly important for your generation because the economy is going to churn and change in ways that none of us can even anticipate.

  2. JanF

    Credit Agencies Agree To Wait Before Adding Medical Debt To Ratings

    Too many consumers have learned the hard way that their credit rating can be tarnished by medical bills they may not owe or when disputes delay insurer payment. That should change under a new policy agreed to this week by the three major credit reporting agencies.

    The agencies say they will establish a 180-day waiting period before medical debt is added to someone’s credit report. In addition, the agencies agreed that when an insurer pays a bill, the debt will be promptly removed from the consumer’s credit report, unlike certain debts that remain for years.

    The changes are part of a settlement between the credit rating agencies – Equifax, Experian and TransUnion – and the New York Attorney General’s office that aims to improve accuracy and enhance procedures for disputing credit report errors. The agreement covers consumers across the country.

    According to the article, it can take months of wrangling to get an incorrect charge cleared up. If it shows up as a debt during that period of time, it can harm someone’s credit rating.

    Medical debt accounts for more than half of the collection items on credit reports, according to a report by the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau. Among people facing collection for only medical debt, about half have otherwise clean credit reports with no sign of past debt collection problems.

  3. JanF

    Nevada Bill Aims To Scrap Minimum Wage That Voters Passed By Ballot Initiative

    [Nevada state Sen. Joe Hardy (R) has] introduced legislation that would repeal the state’s minimum wage, currently set at $8.25 for those who don’t get health benefits. In 2006, the state’s voters approved a constitutional amendment that sets a standard minimum wage, but Hardy’s resolution would repeal it and give the legislature the ability to control the wage.

    Proving once again that no battle is ever completely won until the enemies of the Will of the People are driven from office. I am not sure what the rules are for constitutional amendments in Nevada but I would hope that the people get a say in any changes and that they push back. Democrats want to go the other way:

    State Sen. Tick Segerblom (D) has sponsored legislation that would raise the constitutional minimum wage to $15 an hour for those without health insurance. A $15 wage is still rare but starting to gain traction after striking fast food workers have called to be paid at least that much. Seattle and San Francisco have increased their wages to that level, while Portland increased the wage for city workers to that much, and it’s under consideration in Oregon, New York City, Los Angeles, and Chicago.

    THIS!! “If [the federal minimum wage] had kept up with inflation, it would be more than $10 an hour, and if it had kept up with rising worker productivity, it would be more than $20.”

  4. JanF

    After racist, sexist e-mail surfaces, U-Md. student leaves fraternity

    An e-mail dated January 2014 and posted to the Internet in recent days appears to be from a student identified as attending U-Md., and it contains a racist, sexist message indicating that he wants to have sex with women during rush week but didn’t want people to invite women of certain races. The note also contains a line using expletives to indicate that “above all else” to forget about “consent.”

    The fraternity expelled the young man and the university is investigating because, according to the university president, the “vulgar language in the email expresses views that are reprehensible to our campus community.” Expelling this person will not fix the problem. It is rooted in white male privilege and the free pass that our society, based on the theory that “boys will be boys”, gives to young men. It does not have to be that way: parents can (and many do) raise their children to respect women and people of color rather than insult and demean them.

    One thing I found troubling about the story is that it referred back to the incident at the University of Oklahoma and said that people were upset over the use of the n-word. Is that what people were concerned about? My sense is that they were more upset by the reference to lynching. It is one thing to be called names but another to feel threatened with violence.

  5. JanF

    ‘Crisis Pregnancy Center’: Faux Clinics

    NARAL Pro-Choice America has conducted undercover investigations in 10 different states to document what happens when women facing an unintended pregnancy find themselves in one of those fake clinics. In California specifically, the organization trained six investigators who visited 45 centers in 19 counties – more than 25 percent of the estimated 167 different CPCs in the state.

    One of those investigators, 19-year-old volunteer Cristina – who asked not to be identified by her real name – attended counseling sessions at dozens of CPCs, and said she was amazed they all ended up blending together. “It’s like everyone was trained by one person. I heard the same thing over and over again,” Cristina said.

    When Cristina told CPC employees that she was unexpectedly pregnant and didn’t think she wanted to have a baby, she always heard the same information about how abortion is supposedly linked to breast cancer, depression, and infertility. One employee told her that ending the pregnancy might puncture her uterus and close her Fallopian tubes, preventing her from having any more children in the future. One counselor asked her how she would have felt if her own mother had aborted her. Another told her she should “stop whoring around.”

    “It was so hurtful. Sitting there in those centers, I was realizing that this could be me – I could be a young girl who is disoriented and happens to stumble across this place and I think it’s a real clinic,” Cristina said. “Even if you’re not looking for a CPC, you might walk in there by accident.”

    An editorial by Amy Everitt, the state director of NARAL Pro-Choice California in the SacBee suggested that “regardless of one’s position on abortion, we can all agree that women should not be given medical misinformation”. I wish that Ms. Everitt were right but I think that the anti-choice movement would disagree with her. If they were honest about helping women, they would help them get birth control and would provide them with more than “just stop whoring around” when a person comes to them for advice about an unwanted pregnancy.  

  6. JanF

    (Full disclosure: I hate these things. I don’t think that it fosters good will or comraderie … I think it humanizes people who should be shunned, like Scott Walker and, really, any Republican whose stated purpose is to destroy government. But the president was funny.)

    The president cracks wise:

    You start getting crankier as you get older.  Next week, I’m signing an executive order to get off my lawn.

    I mean, think about how things have changed since 2008.  Back then, I was the young, tech-savvy candidate of the future.  Now I’m yesterday’s news and Hillary has got a server in her house.  (Laughter.)  I didn’t even know you could have one of those in your house.  (Laughter and applause.)  I am so far behind.  Did you know that?  I would have gotten one.

    Think about it, Scott [Walker] – if I did not love America, I wouldn’t have moved here from Kenya.

    And we can’t just focus on 2016, people.  We just had an election.  This new Congress is just getting started, which is why I want to acknowledge the leader of the House Republicans – as soon as I figure out who that is.  

    And then I got flak for appearing on a video for BuzzFeed, trying to reach younger voters.  What nonsense. You know, you don’t diminish your office by taking a selfie.  You do it by sending a poorly written letter to Iran.  (Laughter and applause.)  Really, that wasn’t a joke.

  7. JanF

    Statement by the President on the Passing of Reverend Willie T. Barrow

    Reverend Willie T. Barrow was a Civil Rights icon and a Chicago institution, a “Little Warrior” in pursuit of justice for all God’s children.  In 1936, when she was just 12 years old, Reverend Barrow demanded to be let on to her all-white school bus in Texas, and the fight for equality she joined that day would become the cause of her life.  She marched with Dr. King on Washington and in Selma.   She stood up for labor rights and women’s rights.  She made one of the first pieces of the AIDS Memorial Quilt, and proudly welcomed LGBT brothers and sisters to the movement she helped lead.

    Nowhere was Reverend Barrow’s impact felt more than in our hometown of Chicago.  Through Operation Breadbasket, the Rainbow/PUSH coalition, and her beloved Vernon Park Church, she never stopped doing all she could to make her community a better place.  To Michelle and me, she was a constant inspiration, a lifelong mentor, and a very dear friend.  I was proud to count myself among the more than 100 men and women she called her “Godchildren,” and worked hard to live up to her example.  I still do.    

    Michelle and I are deeply saddened by Reverend Barrow’s passing, but we take comfort in the knowledge that our world is a far better place because she was a part of it.  Our thoughts and prayers are with Reverend Barrow’s family, and with all those who loved her as we did.

    Rev. Barrow:

    Barrow was a field organizer for the Rev. Martin Luther King Jr., marched on Washington and Selma in the ’60s and more recently focused concern on Chicago’s gun violence and changes to the Voting Rights Act. […]

    “She’s one of those icons in the movement we’ve been able to hold onto for a long time, to learn from, to be loved by, to be challenged by,” Pfleger said.

    Barrow helped organize sit-ins and boycotts in the South with civil rights icons including King, Rosa Parks and the Rev. Ralph Abernathy.

    Alongside the Rev. Jesse Jackson, Barrow co-founded the Chicago chapter of Operation Breadbasket, which would become Operation PUSH.

    Around Chicago, she was known to many as “godmother” or “mother” for the care she took to advise and inform younger activists.

    Known as the “little warrior,” her short height belied a fiery, charismatic, tell-it-like-it-is attitude unchecked by either concern for political correctness or the stature of whomever she was addressing.

    “She was a great motivational speaker with the unusual gift of being able to take a scared group of people and inspire them to take militant non-violent action to correct a wrong,” Jackson said. “She was an authentic freedom fighter in the linage of Sojourner Truth, Rosa Parks and Fannie Lou Hamer.”

    She took up causes ranging from women’s rights to AIDS awareness. Her son, Keith, died of the disease in 1983. And she traveled widely on missions of peace and outreach, including to Vietnam, Russia, Nicaragua, Cuba and to South Africa when Nelson Mandela was released from prison. […]

    “I opened my house up to all of the powerful women in the movement – Coretta Scott King, Dorothy Height, Addie Wyatt,” she once told the Chicago Sun-Times. “That’s how I learned.”

    And she wanted to pass that wisdom on to others.

    “We have to teach this generation, train more Corettas, more Addies, more Dorothys,” she told the newspaper. “If these youth don’t know whose shoulders they stand on, they’ll take us back to slavery.

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