Dear friends,
I recently reread The Fire Next Time. This sentence, about white people, made me gasp aloud:
How can one respect, let alone adopt, the values of a people who do not, an any level whatever, live the ways they say they do, or the way they say they should?
I had been catching up on the news, you see. And I learned that, predictably enough, Republicans who pay lip service to the importance of paying debts and hate the idea of student loan forgiveness, are happy to be on the receiving end of government-backed loan forgiveness.
On Twitter, an infographic listing 13 Republican members of Congress, by name, who benefitted from loan forgiveness of Paycheck Protection Program loans in amounts ranging from $38,000 to $4.3 million, was headed by Matt Gaetz ($476K) and Marjorie Taylor Greene ($180K).
Student loan cancelation only went as high as $20,000, and the larger sums went to those who qualified for Pell Grants.
Independent analyses show that the people eligible for college loan debt relief are disproportionately young and Black. The Education Department estimates that nearly 90 percent of affected borrowers earn $75,000 a year or less.
James Baldwin hit the nail on the head.
Joe Biden did not aim as squarely.
[His student debt] policy is both unquestionably wise, and unquestionably a half-measure. There has long been a movement on the left to cancel all student debt, and even Democratic stalwarts like Chuck Schumer and Elizabeth Warren were pushing for the cancellation of $50,000 in debt. Joe Biden . . .has succumbed to the overwhelming tendency of Clintonian Democrats to cut any good policy idea in half and call it political wisdom.
The author of this piece notes that the uproar over the debt cancelation was likely as virulent and irrational as it would have been if Biden had forgiven $50,000 in debt.
nearly eliminate negative net worth households from the wealth distribution. The Roosevelt Institute brief shows that canceling up to $50,000 of student loan debt per borrower would immediately increase the wealth of Black Americans by 40%. It’s important to note that white college graduates have over seven times more wealth than Black college graduates, according to Brookings.
Tell the president to be bolder. No matter what happens in the midterms, he should cancel $50k of student debt. This ready-made action is from Daily Kos.
If you can, support the folks who got us this far.
Contribute to the Debt Collective.
Joe Biden has called climate change an existential threat. That threat did not go away with the passage of the Inflation Reduction Act. In July, he said:
This is an emergency, an emergency, and I will look at it that way.
I hear Baldwin again, wondering how we can respect someone who does live “the way they say they should.”
In another example of insufficient boldness, the Biden Administration may be poised to approve the Willow oil and gas project in Alaska.
The Willow Project won approval under the last Administration, but a judge rejected that decision because the climate analysis did not meet the requirements of the National Environmental Policy Act.
A draft environmental review recently released by the Biden administration found that Willow could drive as much as $18 billion in climate damages. But the new carbon cost estimates produced by the Biden administration are just one factor in determining whether the White House ultimately approves — or rejects — Willow.
This is the last day to submit comments on the Willow Project.
Submit a public comment to deny the Willow Project permit that would allow more fossil fuel extraction on Indigenous land in Alaska. This comes from Evergreen Action.
Baldwin’s observation about people who talk about values without living by them applies also, unfortunately, to our mayor. Adams has spoken passionately about the importance of schools recognizing and meeting the special needs of students who struggle with literacy.
The mayor’s legal appeal to restore $337 million in cuts to the city’s education budget is ongoing. According to UFT President Michael Mulgrew, the mayor’s cuts are causing harm that we can easily avoid, because
money is available: Of the $7.6 billion the city was allotted for pandemic-fighting aid for teaching, repairs, anti-virus measures and reducing class sizes, he says $4.6 billion is still sitting in the bank.
Tell Adams that school is back in session next week and we want the budget restored.
Enrollment in the city schools is low right now, down 9.5 percent since the pandemic began, which is the perfect time to implement reduced class sizes because it can avert staffing cuts that may contribute to people leaving the profession.
At a time when students’ needs are highest — anxiety and depression are double among young people compared to pre-pandemic levels — lowering class size makes enormous sense.
The legislation to reduce class size has passed the NYS legislature. Governor Hochul’s own rhetoric has emphasized mental health needs of students and addressing the looming shortage of teachers.
Tell Governor Hochul that you want her to sign class size legislation today. This will take 30 seconds!
with love,
L