WaPo | By the time Heiney graduated in August 2014, she said she had racked
up $18,810 in debt, with nearly 80 percent coming from federal loans.
This month marks the end of the six-month grace period on her student
loans, which means the government will starting asking Heiney for its
money. But she won’t pay.
Heiney has landed a job as a
home-health care attendant, but still feels trapped. “Don’t get me
wrong. I’m happy to have my job, but my dream is to go back to Africa
and start a medical clinic. Because I’m now a slave to these loans I
can’t pursue my dreams,” she said.
Heiney and the other 14
protesters have been working with an offshoot of the Occupy Wall Street
movement known as the Debt Collective. The group organized a campaign last year,
called Rolling Jubilee, to buy student loans from debt buyers for cents
on the dollar and wipe out the debt. To date, the campaign has erased
over $30 million in medical and education debt, including $13 million in
private student loans for Everest students.
Organizers reached
out to Corinthian students as the for-profit schools ran into trouble.
After months of pleading with the Education Department to forgive the
federal loans, the students and the organizers came up with the idea for
the strike, said Ann Larson, a Debt Collective organizer.
More
than 100 borrowers have contacted the group since the strike started
this week. Before any of them can join, they must attend a financial
literacy workshop on the consequences of not repaying their debt, Larson
said, noting that most people are already in default.
An
attorney working with the Collective is helping the Corinthian students
file what’s known as a defense to repayment claim, an appeal to the
Education Department to discharge the federal loans on the grounds that
the for-profit school broke the law.
“Our
attorneys say it’s a very untested law and no one has really done it
because the process is unclear,” Larson said. “But rather than wait for
the Department of Ed to clarify the process, we’re just going to dispute
the legitimacy of the debt and see what happens.”
