This article was co-published with In These Times.
A group of student loan borrowers aged 50 and up traveled from around the country to Washington, D.C. on December 11, setting up rocking chairs outside the Department of Education. Dressed in ponchos and beanies to protect against the frigid rain, they passed out cross-stitch kits and signs reading, “Knit-In for Debt Cancellation,” sharing their personal debt stories amidst chants of “Biden, don’t forget, cancel student debt.” These protesters are all members of the Debt Collective, the first union of debtors in the country, and they came to Washington with a message for President Joe Biden: Cancel student debt for borrowers over 50 years old before Donald Trump takes office in January.
Mary Donahue is one of the Debt Collective members who joined the action. A former stay-at-home mom, Donahue decided to go to graduate school when her youngest child went to college. She has succeeded as a social worker in Richmond, Virginia, since she completed her degree in 2008. Donahue loves what she does, and describes the work as “life-saving.” Donahue has $145,000 of student loan debt from her master’s program and $125,000 of it, she says, is interest.
Donahue joined the Debt Collective a few years ago and was excited at the prospect of being in a debtors’ union with people who shared her struggle. “No one in this group had parents who were like, ‘here’s money to go to college,’” Donahue said. “We were all trying to improve our lives by getting an education.”
Becki Wells of Detroit, Michigan, bought savings bonds with her ex-husband to finance their children’s college education. They cashed them to invest the money in the stock market. When the stock market crashed in 2008, she lost the money, and had no choice but to go into debt to put her children through college. Wells shows pride in her children: her son graduated from Howard University and her daughter from Temple University. “We’re from the inner-city of Detroit,” she shared with the group when it was her turn to take the bullhorn. “And I still managed to raise two responsible, healthy, valued community members who are accomplished and productive tax-paying citizens.” She owes over $230,000.
People in the U.S. owe a total of $1.75 trillion in federal and private student loan debt combined, across about 42.8 million federal borrowers and an estimated 3 million private borrowers. Behind those numbers is a group of people ripe for organizing. The Debt Collective has created a political constituency around debt relief. And when it comes to student loan debt, their cause has become particularly popular – a Data for Progress poll from September 2024 found that 69 percent of voters under 45 said Biden should “continue fighting to cancel student loan debt.”
But the cause cuts across age lines. While student debt is often framed as an issue that primarily affects young people, the reality is that many middle-aged and senior Americans are facing the reality........