On Wednesday we talked about a new publication, The Macroeconomic Effects of Student Debt Cancellation, by Stephanie Kelton, Scott Fullwiler, Catherine Ruetschin and Marshall Steinbaum. Three progressive candidates-- Jenny Marshall (Winston-Salem and much of the Piedmont in northwest North Carolina), David Gill (central Illinois) and Antoinette Sedillo Lopez (Albuquerque)-- explained why they back the concept of student debt cancellation. The video above is a fascinating interview Jane O'Meara Sanders did since then with Stephanie Kelton. The two of them are founding fellows of the Sanders Institute, whose mission "is to explore bold new solutions to the most important issues affecting our society." I urge you to watch the whole video to get a better idea of what Kelton and her colleagues are proposing.Meanwhile, let's take a look at the absolutely most flippable district in the country, FL-27. Except for a full decade + of sabotage from Debbie Wasserman Schultz this very blue Miami-Dade seat would have been a Democratic seat long ago. Wasserman Schultz has publicly admitted, albeit not recently, that the incumbent, Ileana Ros-Lehtinen (R) os her friend and that she would not aid any Democrat running there. In fact, she has a long. ugly record of sabotaging any Democrat who dared to try.In 2012, FL-27 went for Obama 53-47% and in 2016 Hillary beat Trump 58.5-38.9%. I believe it was Trump's worst performance in any Republican-held congressional district in the country. Ros-Lehinten decided to call it and day and announced her retirement. The PVI is D+5 and not even Duplicitous Debbie would be able to save her again. The midterm has attracted nearly a dozen Democrats, including a Berniecrat, Michael Hepburn, who teaches at the University of Miami. Coincidentally, Hepburn told his supporters and voters in Miami this week that "Its time to abolish student loan debt" nationally. "Numerous issues have continued to come up as I walk our blocks within the district," he wrote, "but student loan debt has been mentioned too many times to count. One of my main priorities as the Congressman for Florida’s 27th Congressional District will be to create pathways to success by advocating for universal Pre-K to tuition free public higher education, while revamping our current K-12 curriculum throughout the country."
I believe we should transition to a Universal Pre-K to A.A. Degree/Vocational Certification Diploma curriculum for our primary education, supported by a mandatory minimum per pupil allocation of funds throughout our country from our federal budget and a federal mandate and allocation of funds to ensure no teacher earns less than $50K a year.However, I've decided to go further... I'm switching out one of my 27 priorities and adding this to my list. It’s time to abolish student loan debt for the 44 million Americans who are bogged down by this trap. Over the next couple of months-- we will roll out our plan to implement this policy shift in our country and remove the burden of almost 1.4 trillion dollars in outstanding student loan debt.
Derrick Crowe, who's running in a Texas congressional district that goes from San Antonio to Austin and into the Hill Country is also a big fan of the concept and said that "We should repeal the GOP tax scam bill and use the funds to cancel every bit of student debt. Then, we should implement College for All. Declare the era of student debt to be over, for good. That’s what a policy that returns real economic freedom to people should look like."