This month, Cori stood on the steps of the Supreme Court alongside progressive policymakers, advocates — and most importantly — borrowers being crushed by the burden of student loan debt.
We want to share her powerful words with you:
“As a nurse and a single mother, raising two children, my paycheck barely covered my monthly expenses before my loans were taken out. I struggled to put food on the table. I risked eviction every single month so a multimillion-dollar corporation — the student loan servicer — including MOHELA themselves could make an extra few hundred dollars out of my paycheck a month?
So when I defaulted on my loans because my expenses were higher than my wages, my income taxes were garnished. For several years, I was left to raise my two babies without receiving the tax benefits needed to help keep them clothed and fed and housed. No one — not anyone — should have to have their wages or their taxes garnished because they pursued a higher education.
You shouldn’t have to choose between student debt, or investing in your future.
You shouldn’t have to choose between student debt or furthering your education.
You shouldn’t have to choose between student debt or going to school at all.
The President has the legal authority to cancel student debt. We demand that debt relief and we demand it now.
The Supreme Court must see through the falsehoods and look at the facts. Look outside, look at our faces, hear our cries. We, on behalf of the over forty million plus federal student loan borrowers, we demand the Supreme Court upholds the law — and not the fabrications of the far right.
We know that 1.7 trillion dollar debt crisis won’t solve itself but we the borrowers, we the advocates, we the policymakers, we the organizers, we the activists, we the regular everyday folks of this country, we are united and we are ready to push and push and push until we get that delivered and get it delivered now.”
Thank you,
Team Cori
