The Bay State Banner: BUSSW’s BRIDGE Co-Director Claudio Martinez Pushes for Debt Cancellation & Reduced Loan Dependency
In light of the pandemic, student loan payments were suspended until May 1, 2022. In a recent op-ed however, BRIDGE Co-Director Claudio Martinez says this extension fails to answer the underlying problems related to student loan payments. Marginalized communities, especially black women, face high rates of student loan debt which often exacerbates conditions of poverty. Debt cancellation policies are projected to not only encourage higher rates of secondary education, but also boost the GDP by over $86 billion.
Excerpt from “Legislature must act on the crushing burden of student debt” by Claudio Martinez, originally posted in The Bay State Banner:
As a society, we need to understand that the burden of educating its members should be assumed by society at large and not fall on the shoulders of the most vulnerable among us. This reorientation of priorities would necessitate not only returning to the system of educational finance dependent on grants, as opposed to loans, but the wholesale elimination of the financing of education through loans.”