Today's guest hosts are Edwith Theogene and Charlotte Hancock, Organizing Director and Communications Director for Generation Progress.

They discuss how over 43 million Americans currently have student loan debt, and young people are disproportionately likely to be included in that group. Younger generations are deeply invested in ending this crisis, as student debt is holding them back from the financial security they need to buy homes, start and provide for families, and save for retirement. But in order to end the student debt crisis for good, America needs to do more than cancel existing debt—we also need to prevent future student loan debt by addressing the college affordability crisis.

One way to do that is by passing legislation for free or debt-free college. We’ve seen several bills introduced in Congress already and a free community college provision was included in President Biden’s America College Promise plan, but we have yet to see any of these proposals become law.

To talk more about the fight for debt-free college, and why college affordability and student debt solutions are two sides of the same coin, Edwith and Charlotte are joined by two expert guests.
They are Jaylon Herbin, an outreach associate with the Center for Responsible Lending (CRL), and Marshall Anthony, the associate director of policy and advocacy for Higher Education at the Center for American Progress.

Then, during the final segment of the show, Edwith and Charlotte are joined by Generation Progress’s program associate Ella Azoulay. Ella discusses the Debt-Free College For All Week of Action, which Generation Progress is spearheading next week.

Generation Progress' website is GenProgress.org and their Twitter handle is @GenProgress. Edwith Theogene's Twitter handle is @WhoIsEdwith and Charlotte Hancock's handle is @CharlatAnne. Marshall Anthony's Twitter handle is @mcanthonyjr and the handle for the Center for American Progress Higher Education team is @CAPHigherEd. The Twitter handle for Jaylon Herbin is @HerbinJaylon and the handle for the Center for Responsible Lending is @CRLONLIN.


(Image Credit: Karl-Raphael Blanchard)