Student Loan Fury in the Occupy Movement by Brian McKenna

"It’s not just a question for students studying “the science of man.” In 1960 relatively few graduates had student loans to speak of. Today over 70 million Americans have them. The total U.S. student loan debt will exceed a trillion dollars for the first time this year, going beyond credit card debt, according to USA Today (2011). Banks engage in the same kinds of predatory lending with students as they performed with desperate mortgage seekers when they dispensed liar’s loans with great zeal. That helped trigger the Financial Meltdown of 2008. As is now well known, the state bailed out the banks but abandoned the debtors. Overwhelmed, tens of thousands have taken to the streets in the Occupation Movement. It’s a kind of festival of public pedagogy where youth are performing the educational work that academics have long ignored."

"As Robert Lawless puts it, "The last thing the current ruling class wants is a group of people trained to think critically, i.e., question the structure and conventions propagated by the ruling classes. . . .what the ruling class wants are technicians.""

"Universities were once viewed as laboratories for free inquiry and debate. Today they are under siege from privatizers, ideologues, anxious college administrators.  . .and the banks."

"It’s time to return universities to faculty. And it’s time to provide our youth with a fresh start in life, unburdened by debt peonage to Wall Street."