As for this next trip to D.C., I don't want it to be solo. I get lonely in those long, marble corridors, so having company would be very much appreciated - a Blackberry is no substitute for human interaction. That means we have to come up with a strategic plan that will enable people to join me and walk the halls on the House and Senate side to meet with our leaders and demand change.
One of the things I am going to bring up on my return trip is this: why not go after these schools for defrauding students? I think a number of you feel like you were defrauded, and that is something that hasn't been brought up during my meetings. We need to take aim at the institutions who have been responsible for creating the student lending crisis (and I am not just referring to the proprietary schools; I am talking about the non-profits, too), so I am going to get to work on this angle for my return visit. I just spoke to someone on this trip who had an outrageous story about what his financial aid office did to him - I realize the legislation has been written as such that it makes it nearly impossible to prove that the promissory notes we all sign are part of the scam. Once you sign those promissory notes, in many cases, schools adjust and change your funding at will. Yeah, they might call you in for "counseling: and inform you of changes, but there's a lot of fine print that these folks fail to cover. It's deeply troubling how much of the whole scheme is designed to put the student borrower at a disadvantage.
Returning to the October trip, if I had it my way, the next trip would look like this:
(a) 1-2 people from each state - I am realistic, and know that won't be possible, but a girl can dream, right?
(b) Those 1-2 people will set up appointments with their Senators and Representatives.
(c) I will set up specific meetings with my current contacts on the Hill (that's now close to 15 offices), and student debtors will join me for those talks.
(d) Lodging would be provided - again, AEM is on a shredded shoestring budget, so this wouldn't be remotely possible, even for a team of 10-20 participants . . . unless we were to raise an extraordinary amount of money. But . . . perhaps we could find student debtors in the area who would be willing to house people.
(e) Transportation - while I don't think this could be done if we were to have 1-2 people show up from every state, if, say, 10-20 people came, it could be possible to cover the cost of buses and metro. Cabs, as most of you know, are outrageously expensive here (on a side note, whenever I think about this, I get angry and think about how cheap it was to travel by cab in Seoul - why the hell can't it be like that here?!?). So if you were to "cab it" places, you'd have to shell out your own money for that. Sorry!
(f) Lunch/snacks - again, if 10-20 people came along, I think we could figure out a budget that would allow us to have at least one meal covered. It would be great to cover dinners, too, but I don't think that is realistic.
As you can see, if we succeeded in recruiting 10-30 people to come with me, it would essentially be a small army of student loan debtors in DC. They would be representing AEM and millions of other student loan debtors. How great would that be?!? We would go to as many offices as possible, share our stories, and urge our leaders to do something about the crisis.
I am also aware that the White House visits AEM from time-to-time. It is quite an honor to know that someone is visiting me from the White House! Whoever you are, let Mr. Roberto Rodriguez know that there are a number of people on the Hill who are deeply concerned about the student lending crisis. Let him know that I look forward to working with him in the future. (I've heard he's a really great guy).
In terms of applied activism, AEM is just getting started in this next phase. But I can see the change, and it's good. Indeed, I can see how much more progress has been made since I was last here in mid-January, and on that trip I met with Congressman Brad Miller (D-NC)!
Stay tuned for a more detailed update.
Related Links
"Member Notes: Meetings, Legislation, the hope of institutionalizing AEM, Inc.," AEM (January 18, 2011)
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