 The student loan crisis in the US impacts around 45 million people. The average borrower has a debt of almost $40,000. Many of these people remain in debt well into their early years, in their 60s and 70s, as they are unable to pay back the loans. Why are so many American citizens under so much debt from trying to attain education? What is the structure of the education system which has led to this crisis? The student loan debt crisis in the United States is a crisis that's not in an overstatement. The student loan debt total is $1.7 trillion and it's actually growing at a rate six times that of the overall economy. So as of the most recent data from 2020, over 45 million student loan borrowers are in debt with an average of almost $40,000 each. There's about 43 million US residents with federal student loan debt and the federal government actually owns a majority of this debt, 92%. But we're seeing President Biden refuse to cancel debt up to $50,000, which was a very popular rallying cry from members and leaders of his own party. In terms of how this is affecting adults in their 30s and 40s, we see people paying back their student loan debt into their 60s and 70s in this country. These are astronomical numbers, so people cannot afford to pay off this debt and they end up paying it until they're in their elderly years. So it's truly a crisis of huge proportions and it's only a matter of time before this debt bubble is going to burst in the US. In the United States, education is not a right. Yes, there's a public education system. There are public community colleges and state universities, city universities, but they are not free. Higher education is not free. So even those people who do choose the route of going into public education, they're still owing tens of thousands of dollars. And unfortunately, our public schools and just universities, we're specifically talking about colleges and universities, are severely underfunded. And the reason why a lot of people choose to go to the more expensive private schools is because in large part, those schools tend to have a more prestigious reputation, tend to offer better programs and get more funding. They have larger endowments and can give people the kind of quality education that they need to find a job that can sustain them. So right now, you see people drowning in debt just to go to a school that has a solid enough reputation. I know speaking for myself, that was why I chose to go to a private school instead of a public school because from what I wanted to study and the experience I wanted to require, I knew that the state university in my home state was not going to match up with what I could get at a private school. So that's really the fundamental issue here, that an education is not a guaranteed right, and that the public schools are underfunded and are now left in a situation that leads people to take on this debt in order to go to a more expensive private school. And there are solutions to this, of course. Right now, the Build Back Better Bill, which is still awaiting passage in Congress, would give every student the right to attend community college for free. But community college is only two years. It's only those first two years of a bachelor's degree. So that's still a band-aid on this gaming world of a crisis. Most of these student loans, about 92% are owned by the federal government. President Joe Biden had stated repeatedly during his election campaign that he will act on the student debt crisis and implement loan waivers. Now, however, his administration has failed to take any steps in this regard. Student loan payments were scheduled to resume in February after a pause during the pandemic. After widespread opposition, the Biden administration has extended this pause by another three months until May 1st. What is stopping Biden from fulfilling his campaign promises? What are progressive movements in the country saying about this situation? Yes, so the biggest demand that we're seeing within the Democratic Party is to cancel student loan debt up to $50,000 per debtor using executive action. Biden has the ability to do this. And we're seeing a lot of leaders in the Democratic Party in Congress like Chuck Schumer, Elizabeth Warren, Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, who are pushing for this $50,000 forgiveness and asking that he do it through an executive order. And again, this can be done through the executive office, through the Secretary of Education. And this was actually the power that was used by Trump Secretary of Education Betsy DeVos to suspend student loan payments under the Trump administration. And now, even though this was something that Biden promised to do all on the campaign trail, saying that the student debt crisis needed immediate action, now he's acting as if his hands are tied to cancel even $10,000 worth of that debt. His press secretary on Monday, Saki said, essentially, it's on Congress. We're waiting for a bill from Congress. Yeah, it's very clear that the easiest way to go about this and the most feasible way would be for Biden just to sign an executive order cancelling this debt. So this debt cancellation would simulate the economy, but also help to address the racial wealth gap because we see black and Latino people facing the worst of this debt crisis in the most debt compared to white people in this country. So, yeah, this is the situation that we're confronting. And this is what President Biden is refusing to do, despite the fact that leaders of his own party are calling for this. So what I'm seeing in a lot of progressive and leftist spaces and organizations and movements, calling for is total student loan debt forgiveness, completely 100% across the board forgiveness of this debt because education is a human right. That's the basis that they're making this call under because everyone has a right to higher education. And if we're living in a system where a prerequisite for most well or just decently paying jobs, I can even say all well paying jobs just to make a livable wage in this country, a livable salary that you need to have at least a bachelor's degree under your belt, there should not be any sort of monetary gatekeeping to this. And that education is a fundamental right for all people. So higher education should be free across the board. So that's what folks are calling for. And also the fact that all this the student loan crisis and the incredible interest rates that are put on these loans are something that is just benefiting Wall Street. All of these big banks that own this mine and that have contracts with the government, you know, despite the fact that the government owns 92% of the student debt, all these ties to Wall Street just make it so that the richest people in this country are literally making money off of this debt crisis. So what we need to see according to all these people's movements and leftist organizations in the US is a complete cancellation of all student loan debt and is making higher education free across the board.