Don't call it student debt
(CNN) -- The first thing we need to do to get serious about student debt? Stop calling it "student debt."
"College debt" or "education debt" might work. Anything but student debt -- because not just students but entire families are paying the cost of our broken system for funding higher education.
Case in point: The other day, one of the top stories on CNN.com was about two grieving parents who lost their child but are still stuck with her student loan bills.
This story represents so much about what is wrong with our system of financing higher education -- not to mention our national priorities.
The full story is worth reading, but here is the short version: Steve Mason co-signed $100,000 worth of student loans for his daughter, Lisa. When she passed away, her parents were stuck with the debt, which had ballooned to nearly $200,000.
And now, these two parents, who took in three young grandchildren, are almost utterly without options.
If it were not for a George W. Bush-era law limiting financial protections for consumers, bankruptcy would be their last resort. But today, thanks to provisions in the 2005 Bankruptcy Bill, private student loans are one of the only forms of debt that cannot be discharged under any circumstances.
If these were federal student loans with lower interest rates, the amount the Masons owe might not have ballooned quite so much. More importantly, they would have access to repayment plans or even some token financial assistance. But theirs are private loans.
And if conservatives had not waged a war to defund higher education to pay for tax breaks for their favored donors, perhaps the Masons and others like them might have avoided this tragedy altogether.
Instead, our young people are graduating off a cliff. America's global competitiveness is at risk. And our economy is struggling as families young and old neglect other purchases to pay down a combined more than $1 trillion in education debt.
Of course, this problem is solvable.
How to hook up tech sector with talent
(CNN) -- Google, Yahoo, LinkedIn and Facebook have all released their workforce diversity reports in the past few weeks. These reports have sparked much hand-wringing about the low number of African-Americans and Latinos who are working in Silicon Valley tech companies. We expect to see a tide of more reports, illustrating a dismal situation needing attention.
But, too often, stunned commentators overlook a simple fact: This problem is fixable.
Tech companies need more workers, and African-American and Latino communities need more work. Silicon Valley has an insatiable demand for genius. Communities of color have an untapped supply of it. Putting aside any blaming or shaming, tech leaders and communities of color could greatly benefit by coming together -- to ensure that America stops wasting so much genius. Neither Silicon Valley nor low-opportunity communities can afford it anymore.
For instance: 70% of "Googlers" are men, 30% women; 61% are white and 30% are Asian. Blacks and Hispanics? Only 2% and 3%, respectively. Google's May 2014 report could best be summed up with the company's own words: "We're not where we want to be."
These reports have their place. But let us first keep in mind: As important as transparency is, simply releasing these numbers won't solve the problem. In fact, Intel, one of the world's largest tech companies, has been openly sharing its diversity stats for the past decade -- and should be applauded for doing so. And yet the company still struggles with hiring minority talent.
Imagine, if you will, a promising black or Latino child, sitting behind a public school desk in East Oakland. That youth is seated just half an hour's drive from Silicon Valley. But it would take something like a miracle for that child to ever find her way into a coding education program, let alone an internship or job at the world's most famous tech companies, right down the road.
We need to fix this -- and we can. We won't have to start from scratch. Many grass-roots educational organizations are already working to solve this problem. They are inventing and pioneering powerful new models to bring coding education to new constituencies.
Unfortunately, none has reached the necessary scale.
America desperately needs an efficient solution for diversifying talent in the tech sector. If existing programs could work together in smart ways, with the best ones getting support to scale up dramatically, we could create a process that would pull extraordinary talent out of unlikely places, like Oakland, or East Los Angeles, or a Native American reservation, or, for that matter, Appalachia.
One effort to create those synergies and build that pipeline is called #YesWeCode, an initiative I helped start. Our goal is to help grass-roots groups train 100,000 low-opportunity youth to become high-level computer coders.
Here is how we're doing it...
Van Jones warns against climate change on Crossfire
Van Jones and S.E. Cupp went head to head on the topic of climate change, along with guests Bill Nye, the Science Guy and The Heritage Foundation's Nicolas Loris on Crossfire.
Watch our favorite clips below.
"Climate disruption is not a crazy, liberal concoction..." - Van
What do cigarettes and climate change have in common?
Van asks should the government stop preparing for climate change?
Like what you see? Watch the FULL episode here:
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Costly college loan? You're stuck with it.
(CNN) -- If you took out a loan a few years ago to buy a flashy sports car, you could save buckets of money by refinancing at today's low rates.
But if you did the smart thing and took out federal student loans to pay for an education -- sorry, you are out of luck! Federal student loans cannot be refinanced.
If that sounds insane to you, you will like the plan Sen. Elizabeth Warren unveiled in a speech recently at the Center for American Progress.
Last spring, Congress passed bipartisan legislation to lower student loan interest rates as of July 1, 2013. But they did little for people who already had borrowed at higher rates.
Say you took out a loan even a day earlier, on June 31. At that point, the congressionally mandated rate was 6.8%. You are locked into it. No matter what else Congress does to help new borrowers.
Unlike almost every other type of loan, federal student loans are set in stone even if rates change for the better. (There are private refinancing options but they have strict requirements and limited scope.) This might not constitute a crisis if college cost what it did in the 1970s. But with middle class wages flat for decades, the soaring cost of education has become a mammoth debt dilemma dragging down an entire generation.
Today, Americans hold an all-time record $1.3 trillion in student debt. It cannot be discharged by bankruptcy or even death. In some cases, Social Security benefits are being garnished to pay for a grandchild's debt if a grandparent co-signed. Parents are still paying off their own bills while contemplating putting their kids through college.
The solution is simple: Let Americans with federal student loans refinance to today's low rate. But the reason why Congress refuses to act may surprise you.
Van debunks 3 myths about Keystone XL Pipeline on Crossfire
Now is the time for us to stand against what could turn out to be a major climate and environmental atrocity.
With the recent release of the State Department’s final report on the Keystone XL pipeline (KXL), President Obama could be one step closer to approving this toxic project.
If approved, KXL would transport more than 800,000 barrels of tar sands oil daily across the U.S. from Canada to the Gulf Coast. And just to be clear - This is not oil. This is pipe-eating, planet-cooking, water-fouling goo that nobody knows what to do with.
Today marks the first day of the State Department's new public comment period on the report, which invites the entire public to share their comments and concerns about the pipeline.
Watch my own public comment against KXL where I debunk three popular myths about "this special interest boondoggle."
Do you have your own public comment? Share it here.
p.s. You can also share this video on Facebook or Twitter.
Van Jones on State of the Union
During Tuesday's State of the Union speech, President Obama promised a "year of action" while addressing important topics, such as raising the minimum wage to $10.10 for new federal contract workers and touting successful diplomacy abroad with Syria and Iran.
While these are promising moves toward action, the American people deserve much more.
Watch Rebuild the Dream's Van Jones share what issues the President needs to tackle to truly make 2014 a big year:
MLK Meets Silicon Valley?!?
I’m thrilled to be taking part in Oakland’s very first "StartUp Weekend": February 7-9!
Too many urban youth are slipping through the cracks. We need to stop wasting their genius -- and start celebrating and supporting it.
#YesWeCode -- our national initiative to support the movement to teach 100,000 low-opportunity youth to code -- is partnering with the amazing Qeyno Labs and Impact HUB Oakland to make this event a success!
During the weekend, we’ll explore the question: Could an app have saved Trayvon Martin’s life?
The weekend will feature the first global "hackathon" centered on Black Male Achievement and more. For those new to the term, a "hackathon" is a creative session in which innovators, coders and designers work together to create cool stuff. People from different technical backgrounds and cultures will create unique solutions from scratch -- from websites, to mobile apps, to my personal favorite, robots!
At the end, each team will have the opportunity to pitch its creation to a panel of judges. The panel's expertise reflects the following five tracks: education, health, restorative justice, video gaming and environment.
I’ll be doing the keynote at Saturday’s evening gala, and I would love to see you there. It's going to be a magical evening filled with #YesWeCode superstars and leaders from across business, government and social sectors. We will also be taking part in other festivities during the weekend.
Please join me. Even if you’re not a big "computer person" (I'm still learning myself!), it will be inspiring. You will meet game-changers from all over the globe -- plus bright, passionate young people who aren’t afraid to hack a positive future for themselves, and for us all. And there will be national news media and local tech entrepreneurs.
There is no doubt that this weekend will be a crucial step in creating a Silicon Valley of which Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. would be proud!
See you in Oakland,
Van
p.s. #YesWeCode is online on Twitter, Facebook and our new website.
See below for weekend schedule:
The Best and Worst of 2013
From spy guy scandals to healthcare chaos. From an electric car that went zoom to a falling star that went zoom. From Miley going mad to Canadians going crazy, 2013 was a bumpy road.
Take a look back at the year with Crossfire hosts Van Jones and S.E. Cupp, New Day's Michaela Pierera, MTV's Sway Calloway, Miss America Nina Davuluri, chef Marc Forgione, and Jeopardy! champion Ken Jennings.
Watch the full episode below:
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2013 Wrap Up
As 2013 comes to an end, we at Rebuild the Dream would like to thank all of our supporters, fellow game-changers and allies who have been striving to create and implement smart, creative solutions for the 99 percent.
Under the leadership of our president Van Jones, our community has persevered and made significant impact on the national political landscape.
- You helped our Keystone XL video go viral, engaging hundreds of thousands of people to move to the streets to fight its approval in D.C.
- You brought national attention to the gun debate by taking part in the collaborative art project called the Gun Show Gallery, submitting and sharing hundreds of posters designs against gun violence -- infusing culture and creativity into a perilous political movement.
- You helped Van to call out the Tea Party’s biggest demagogue, Sen. Ted Cruz for his role in the government shut down in front of millions on national television. We hope you enjoyed it. We know we did. [Watch it here]
- Most recently, more than a 120,000 of you successfully signed a petition to get Bush-era Ed DeMarco fired as head of the Federal Housing Finance Agency.
We couldn't have done any of this without you and we welcome you to join us for an even more amazing adventure in 2014!
To see more of Rebuild and Van's highlights from this past year, watch the videos below.
Happy New Year!
[via Rebuild the Dream]
Rebuilding the Dream, Changing the Game
On Wednesday, December 5th, the Pachamama Alliance hosted a live video conversation with attorney, civil rights activist, environmental advocate, and co-host of CNN’s Crossfire, Van Jones.
This interactive event was insightful, moving, and provocative and covered topics ranging from the true meaning of patriotism, to faith in the generation of Millennials, to his newest initiative #YesWeCode, inspired by the recent Trayvon Martin tragedy.
Although it is difficult to encapsulate the depth of an hour’s worth of meaningful conversation with Jones, I will highlight and summarize some of his most poignant points below. Embedded within each section is the video clip of that portion of the conversation.
Cheap Patriotism vs. Deep Patriotism
Jones defines Cheap Patriotism as “what you see on Fox News, where they just wrap the American flag around a bunch of hatred and say that’s what patriotism is”. The far right has snatched the narrative of what patriotism means, and as a society, it is problematic when we let a small sector of the population determine what being a patriot means.
Deep Patriotism is progressive. In examining what it means to be patriotic, Jones asks:
- Who is standing up for America the Beautiful?
- Who is standing up for the environment?
- Who is sticking up for “Liberty and Justice for all”?
He argues, rightfully, that it is not the conservatives and not the Tea Party. Liberty for all is a progressive idea, and includes gays, lesbians, and immigrants — “You can’t be an anti-immigrant bigot and a patriot”.
