Working Families

PSU student, Ariel Gruver of Students for Educational Debt Reform called for the Oregon legislature to pass the WFP’s groundbreaking Debt-Free Higher Education bill, Pay it Forward at a press conference at Portland State University today with Senator Jeff Merkley. Gruver said “I believe that with creative solutions like Pay It Forward, we can begin to reverse the trend of state disinvestment in higher education, but I also know that it will take hard work at the federal level to make a lasting impact.”

Senator Merkley, who is a co-sponsor of Elizabeth Warren’s Bank on Students Loan Fairness Act, called for Congress to give students the same interest rates as big banks who borrow from the Federal Reserve, around 0.75%. If Congress doesn’t act by July 1st, interest rates on federal student loans are set to double from 3.4 to 6.8%. The average Oregon public university senior now has more than $26,000 in student debt.

State Representative Chris Gorsek (D /WFP), a co-sponsor of Pay It Forward said “Oregon has to prioritize the well-being of all of our residents, not just adults, but also students and children.” Representative Michael Dembrow (D / WFP) who is championing Pay It Forward in Salem, was also there in support.

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This week 11,000 activists from around the country called in to a national conference call with Senator Elizabeth Warren to address the student debt crisis.

Oregon–and the Oregon WFP–featured prominently in the call.  Alexandra Flores-Quilty, a student leader and activist from the University of Oregon, and Tom Leedham, an Oregon WFP board member and the leader of Teamsters Local 206, were also featured speakers on the call.

You can hear a recording of the call here.

The Oregon WFP is leading a campaign to create a state-based system for debt free higher education in Oregon.  It is an innovative approach that would fundamentally change the game debt-for-education treadmill system that is hurting students, hurting families, and hurting our economy.

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The Working Families Party has been mobilizing people around the issue of debt-free higher education in Oregon, as well as on the Bank on Students bill. More than 1,300 WFP members tuned into a briefing on student debt with Elizabeth Warren last night co-sponsored by the WFP and MoveOn.

Sen. Jeff Merkley will be holding a press conference on student debt at 11:30 on June 7th in Portland State’s Smith Memorial Student Union. Merkley, a co-signer of Elizabeth Warren’s Bank on Students bill, which would offer students the same low interest rates on loans that financial institutions receive. In addition, Ariel Gruver, a member of WFP ally Student For Educational Debt Reform, will be speaking about our debt-free higher education bill, HB 3472.

What: Jeff Merkley’s press conference on student debt.

Where: Smith Memorial Student Union, Room 238 at Portland State University (directions)

When: Friday, June 7th at 11:30 a.m.

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Students are drowning in debt. The average debt load for an Oregon college graduate is now $25,000, a 75% increase since 2005. This is a truly remarkable cost shift onto the backs of students. Our system of public education that was founded to serve the public good, is quickly slipping out of reach for working class people.

Fortunately, Oregon just took a first step yesterday to change the debt-for-education treadmill that has trapped students, and trapped our economy. By a unanimous vote, the House Higher Education Committee passed HB 3472,* a proposal that Oregon Working Families has taken a leading role in pushing forward for many months now. [1]

If you want to break the debt-for-education trap, and feel we have come too far to turn back now, sign our petition in support of the Pay it Forward system for debt free higher education in Oregon.

Federal action is needed to fix many aspects of the broken higher education funding system, but the great thing about the our Pay it Forward model is it is something the state of Oregon can do right here to make college accessible to all Oregonians. Here’s how it works:

1. Students who choose to go to an Oregon public university or community college would go tuition free.

2. Then, in the same way that Social Security is a generational compact, graduates pay a small, set amount of their income into a Higher Education Fund dedicated to allowing the next generation of students to go to school tuition free.

3. Finally, graduates don’t start life after college with a massive debt, and we remove Wall Street banks–along with the interest and fees they charge for their loans–from the system altogether.

The bill that passed yesterday is a first step, but it was a big one. It directs the Higher Education Coordinating Committee to develop a Pay It Forward pilot program to be presented to the next Legislative Session for approval. Now our bill moves on to the Ways and Means Committee and then to the floor of both Houses.

With the vote yesterday the Oregon legislature is leading the country on developing a viable, state-based alternative to the debt-driven system that makes Wall Street happy, but leaves students saddled with unsustainable debt.

Don’t let the momentum die in our fight to end student debt as we know it. Sign the petition for debt free higher education in Oregon, and help Oregon lead the nation on addressing this critical issue.

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The Portland City Council voted unanimously (5 – 0) in favor of an Earned Sick Days policy today, making it the fourth city in the United States to pass the ordinance.  The ordinance, once implemented next year, would allow workers to take up to five days of leave when they or a family member is ill.  Workers at businesses with six or more employees would be allowed paid sick leave, and employees at smaller businesses would be granted job-protected unpaid time.

“This is a huge victory for working people throughout the city of Portland, and now we need to pass this at the state level,” said Steve Hughes, State Director of Oregon Working Families. “Commissioner Fritz showed great leadership on this issue, and we commend her and the entire council for their long, hard work crafting this policy.”

40% of Portland workers—and 80% of service sector workers— don’t currently have access to sick time on the job, and stand to benefit from the passage of this ordinance.  Studies have shown that the lack of paid sick time disproportionately impacts working class people, women and people of color.  145 other countries around the world have already established earned sick time as a basic labor standard.

Oregon Working Families spent a good portion of the summer and fall talking to Portlanders about the sick days ordinance.  This field program, which together with allied organizations, knocked on just shy of 40,000 doors, found widespread popular support for the ordinance.  “We found that when you went out there and talked to every day Portlanders, this Earned Sick Days ordinance just seemed like common sense,” said Steve Hughes.

The coalition now turns its attention to statewide legislation, with Representatives Michael Dembrow and Alissa Keny-Guyer and Senators Diane Rosenbaum and Elizabeth Steiner-Hayward leading the effort in the state legislature.

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