

SUBSCRIBE TO OUR FREE NEWSLETTER
Daily news & progressive opinion—funded by the people, not the corporations—delivered straight to your inbox.
5
#000000
#FFFFFF
To donate by check, phone, or other method, see our More Ways to Give page.


Daily news & progressive opinion—funded by the people, not the corporations—delivered straight to your inbox.

Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (D-N.Y.) speaks about her own college debt experience during a December 2, 2021 House floor speech on canceling student loans. (Photo: YouTube screen grab)
Amid reports that his administration is considering extending the federal college loan payment moratorium scheduled to expire on February 1, Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez on Tuesday added her voice to the growing chorus of calls by progressives for President Joe Biden to cancel student debt.
Ocasio-Cortez (D-N.Y.) cited the Biden administration's about-face decision to distribute millions of free at-home Covid-19 testing kits, tweeting that the idea was "initially laughed at, yet now it's happening."
Politico's Michael Stratford reported Tuesday that the U.S. Department of Education "says it may postpone" its plan to restart monthly federal student loan repayments in February.
As Common Dreams reported, progressive lawmakers including Reps. Ayanna Pressley (D-Mass.) and Cori Bush (D-Mo.) joined grassroots activists such as the Debt Collective in encouraging the administration to extend the moratorium.
Ocasio-Cortez--one of dozens of congressional lawmakers still paying off their college loans--is a longtime advocate of student debt cancellation. Speaking on the House floor earlier this month, she said U.S. student indebtedness is "getting ridiculous" and that she did not attend graduate school because "getting another degree would drown me in debt I would never be able to surpass."
"Growing up I was told since I was a child, 'Your destiny is to go to college. That's what's gonna lift our family up and out. That is our future,'" she said.
Related Content

"We still do that today," Ocasio-Cortez added. "It's teenagers signing up for what is often hundreds of thousands of dollars of debt, and we just do that. And our government allows that. We give 17-year-olds the ability to sign on for hundreds of thousands of dollars of debt, and we think that's responsible policy."
Dear Common Dreams reader, It’s been nearly 30 years since I co-founded Common Dreams with my late wife, Lina Newhouser. We had the radical notion that journalism should serve the public good, not corporate profits. It was clear to us from the outset what it would take to build such a project. No paid advertisements. No corporate sponsors. No millionaire publisher telling us what to think or do. Many people said we wouldn't last a year, but we proved those doubters wrong. Together with a tremendous team of journalists and dedicated staff, we built an independent media outlet free from the constraints of profits and corporate control. Our mission has always been simple: To inform. To inspire. To ignite change for the common good. Building Common Dreams was not easy. Our survival was never guaranteed. When you take on the most powerful forces—Wall Street greed, fossil fuel industry destruction, Big Tech lobbyists, and uber-rich oligarchs who have spent billions upon billions rigging the economy and democracy in their favor—the only bulwark you have is supporters who believe in your work. But here’s the urgent message from me today. It's never been this bad out there. And it's never been this hard to keep us going. At the very moment Common Dreams is most needed, the threats we face are intensifying. We need your support now more than ever. We don't accept corporate advertising and never will. We don't have a paywall because we don't think people should be blocked from critical news based on their ability to pay. Everything we do is funded by the donations of readers like you. When everyone does the little they can afford, we are strong. But if that support retreats or dries up, so do we. Will you donate now to make sure Common Dreams not only survives but thrives? —Craig Brown, Co-founder |
Amid reports that his administration is considering extending the federal college loan payment moratorium scheduled to expire on February 1, Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez on Tuesday added her voice to the growing chorus of calls by progressives for President Joe Biden to cancel student debt.
Ocasio-Cortez (D-N.Y.) cited the Biden administration's about-face decision to distribute millions of free at-home Covid-19 testing kits, tweeting that the idea was "initially laughed at, yet now it's happening."
Politico's Michael Stratford reported Tuesday that the U.S. Department of Education "says it may postpone" its plan to restart monthly federal student loan repayments in February.
As Common Dreams reported, progressive lawmakers including Reps. Ayanna Pressley (D-Mass.) and Cori Bush (D-Mo.) joined grassroots activists such as the Debt Collective in encouraging the administration to extend the moratorium.
Ocasio-Cortez--one of dozens of congressional lawmakers still paying off their college loans--is a longtime advocate of student debt cancellation. Speaking on the House floor earlier this month, she said U.S. student indebtedness is "getting ridiculous" and that she did not attend graduate school because "getting another degree would drown me in debt I would never be able to surpass."
"Growing up I was told since I was a child, 'Your destiny is to go to college. That's what's gonna lift our family up and out. That is our future,'" she said.
Related Content

"We still do that today," Ocasio-Cortez added. "It's teenagers signing up for what is often hundreds of thousands of dollars of debt, and we just do that. And our government allows that. We give 17-year-olds the ability to sign on for hundreds of thousands of dollars of debt, and we think that's responsible policy."
Amid reports that his administration is considering extending the federal college loan payment moratorium scheduled to expire on February 1, Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez on Tuesday added her voice to the growing chorus of calls by progressives for President Joe Biden to cancel student debt.
Ocasio-Cortez (D-N.Y.) cited the Biden administration's about-face decision to distribute millions of free at-home Covid-19 testing kits, tweeting that the idea was "initially laughed at, yet now it's happening."
Politico's Michael Stratford reported Tuesday that the U.S. Department of Education "says it may postpone" its plan to restart monthly federal student loan repayments in February.
As Common Dreams reported, progressive lawmakers including Reps. Ayanna Pressley (D-Mass.) and Cori Bush (D-Mo.) joined grassroots activists such as the Debt Collective in encouraging the administration to extend the moratorium.
Ocasio-Cortez--one of dozens of congressional lawmakers still paying off their college loans--is a longtime advocate of student debt cancellation. Speaking on the House floor earlier this month, she said U.S. student indebtedness is "getting ridiculous" and that she did not attend graduate school because "getting another degree would drown me in debt I would never be able to surpass."
"Growing up I was told since I was a child, 'Your destiny is to go to college. That's what's gonna lift our family up and out. That is our future,'" she said.
Related Content

"We still do that today," Ocasio-Cortez added. "It's teenagers signing up for what is often hundreds of thousands of dollars of debt, and we just do that. And our government allows that. We give 17-year-olds the ability to sign on for hundreds of thousands of dollars of debt, and we think that's responsible policy."