Socialist Salon Monthly Discussion Forum

Socialist Salon is DSA's monthly forum to discuss the politics, economics, theory, and practice of democratic socialism.

Come to Socialist Salon and share your insights!

Socialist Salon Monthly Discussion Forum is generally held on the Third Thursday of the month.

The topic for this month will be student loan debt.

Student loan debt in the United States now exceeds $1 trillion. Higher education is increasingly treated as an individual commodity, rather than a public good or an investment in our collective future.

We will be discussing what this means for students and for society as a whole and what we can do to make student loan repayment simple and fair.

Suggested reading:

The Financial Cost of Higher Education:

Why student aid is NOT driving up college costs (http://www.washingtonpost.com/blogs/answer-sheet/post/the-urban-legend-of-the-bennett-hypothesis-or-why-student-aid-is-not-driving-up-college-costs/2012/05/31/gJQAFvEX5U_blog.html) - The Washington Post

What drives up the cost of college tuition? (http://www.classesandcareers.com/education/2011/02/10/what-drives-up-the-cost-of-college-tuition/) - Classes and Careers

Wrong Solutions on Loans (http://www.insidehighered.com/views/2013/04/12/political-solutions-student-loan-problem-fall-short-essay) - Inside Higher Ed

Human Impact of Student Debt:

Your student loan isn’t really a loan (http://www.salon.com/2013/06/05/let_college_students_go_bankrupt/) – Salon

The Soul of Student Debt (http://jacobinmag.com/2012/12/the-soul-of-student-debt/) – Jacobin

Default: The Student Loan Documentary (http://vimeo.com/14215806) (27-minute film) - Vimeo

Current Policy:

Ensuring That Student Loans are Affordable (http://www.whitehouse.gov/issues/education/higher-education/ensuring-that-student-loans-are-affordable) – The White House

Proposed Actions :

DSA Drop Student Debt Campaign (http://www.dsausa.org/current_campaigns) - DSA

Goals for Ending the Student Debt Crisis (http://occupystudentdebt.com/goals) - Occupy Student Debt