Occupy Wall Street Group Buys $4 Million Of Debt From Students At For-Profit Everest College

[LiberalEsto]

"An offshoot of the Occupy Wall Street movement has purchased, and promptly abolished, almost $4 million in student debt from former students of Everest College, the national for-profit college chain that is in the process of being shut down by the Education Department in the wake of numerous lawsuits and violations.

The group, the Rolling Jubilee, announced the debt buy today along with the launch of a website called the Debt Collective. In 2012, the Rolling Jubilee drew attention when it bought and abolished $15 million of medical debt. The group’s aim in buying and abolishing loan debt, it says, is to build a broader “debt-resistance movement,” with the Debt Collective website as its organizing hub.

“Debt is the tie that binds the 99%, whether you are a student delinquent on your student loans or a parent struggling to pay healthcare bills,” said a Rolling Jubilee member in a statement.

Medical debt is frequently bundled, bought and sold to debt collectors, most often for pennies on the dollar. But because most student loans are through the federal government, student debt is more difficult to acquire. The debt bought by the Rolling Jubilee, which the group said cost about $100,000, is from private loans made by Everest College. Most of those were taken out by students who had maxed out their federal loan limits, many of whom will still owe anywhere from $20,000 to $60,000 for their degrees. Because the debt is sold off in bundles, Rolling Jubilee cannot buy an individual’s debt, and learned the names of those whose debt it is abolishing only after the fact."

Link:

http://www.buzzfeed.com/mollyhensleyclancy/occupy-wall-street-group-buys-4-million-of-debt-from-student#2ne2kgd

[Initech]

1. Ah yes Everest College - where you can get a major in psychiatry complete with....

Trips to visit the Museum of Scientology! Seriously you might as well teach voodoo at that point.

Good for Occupy for ridding students of debt from this ridiculous school!

[LiberalEsto]

4. And maybe this generous effort will change some hearts and minds

among the former students.

[Luminous Animal]

2. Please consider donating. So far, over $18 million of debt discharged with a mere $700,000

donations.

http://strikedebt.org

[A Little Weird]

8. Done

Thanks for the link.

[Luminous Animal]

10. Thank you!

[malaise]

3. K & R

Nice

[xchrom]

5. du rec.

[pansypoo53219]

6. my only issue is that banksters are getting paid their ounce of compounded interest flesh.

how do we DENY their INFLATED PROFITS OFF OF PEOPLE???? we need a PEOPLES BANK.

[sabrina 1]

9. A people's Bank. That sounds like a good idea and I think it was proposed during

Occupy and last I heard, was being seriously considered.

Maybe a class action suit by millions of people against what can only be described as extortion?

Congress is also responsible for this, passing laws that make student debt ineligible for bankruptcy.

Predatory Capitalism gone wild. That is what has been happening over the past couple of decades or so with the approval of the US Govt.

[flpoljunkie]

7. While yesterday Senate Republicans blocked Elizabeth Warren's amendment to do something

to give students some relief from this crushing debt. Senator Cornyn, speaking for the Republicans, objected to Elizabeth Warren's amendment and that was that.