EVER WONDER WHY THE COST OF COLLEGE IS SO HIGH? 

OR why it increased 100% in the past decade?  OR why more college presidents now make over $1M?

Anyone ever ask, "Can you afford college?"  Or did they just show you what forms to fill out for student loans?   

Do you know the interest rate on your student loan?  Can you refinance?

If you're like me, you never knew Congress removed "consumer protections" from student loans.  What are consumer protections?   Laws like Fair Lending, Statute of Limitations, and bankruptcy help ensure that all share in the risk of lending money, yet these are absent from public and private loans, thus the only ones carrying the risk are the borrowers.

As a parent of two teens embarking on higher education and aware of high tuition costs beyond what our two-income family might afford, I started to look in to student loans for my children to attend college.  I heard horror stories from friends and family who are still in debt, some 10 to 20 years after graduating.  As a filmmaker, I quickly became outraged at a broken system our government and lawmakers created.

I'm writing this petition in hopes that more parents and students will sign and join me in making some “good trouble,” by speaking up and demanding change.

So what does the absence of consumer protections look like?  Here's a snapshot:

When my wife and I applied for a mortgage, we were told the interest rate.  We made monthly payments and we watch our principal loan balance go down each month.  As interest rates lowered, we refinanced, more than once. 

THAT'S NOT THE CASE WITH STUDENT LOANS

For example, medical students, our front line workers, have shared, "We didn't know our loan's interest rate until AFTER graduation.  We didn't know interest began accruing well before we graduated AND we're now LOCKED IN to a high interest rate, higher than a mortgage."

THINGS ARE NOT AS THEY WERE INTENDED 

The 1965 Act of Higher Education meant going to college was intended to cost little to no interest.  Unfortunately, in the 1990s, the whole lending system was redesigned into a PRIVATE-FOR-PROFIT scheme on behalf of the 100s of public and private Universities and Colleges that lobbied Congress.  Albert Lord, the former CEO of Sallie Mae, who led the private-for-profit GSO, states in Josh Mitchell’s new book "The Debt Trap: How Student Loans Became a National Catastrophe" (Simon & Schuster) that College Presidents are as much to blame for the rising cost of college and thus, the exorbitant interest and unfair pay-off processes that benefit lenders, not students.

COLLEGE PRESIDENT SHOULD BE THE FIRST TO PROTECT ALL OUR CHILDREN, yet they remain SILENT. 

Today, presidents of Higher Education know these loans are a very poor, UNSAFE ways to fund a future.  Remember, THEY have NO risk, therefore all the burden is placed upon students, parents and grandparents.

I want to protect my son and daughter from falling into the hands of all predatory lenders.  None of us would sign on to a mortgage where we didn't know the interest rate, couldn't refinance and absent were consumer protections.  Why are we making teenagers do this to start their future?

If you're a student, a parent, or a grandparent, you know an education that costs 1/4 million dollars could stay with you for life.  College Presidents are NOT going to SPEAK until WE MAKE THEM.  HELP END unfair lending practices now!

Sign this petition "Parents Demand College and University Presidents SPEAK UP and Protect All Borrowers From Unfair Lending Practices.”

For more information and how to DONATE to film's Final Phase  of the documentary SCARED TO DEBT series, that outlines how Fair Lending laws were removed (fyi, donations to Change.org do not reach us at the film).

Sign our mailing list:  https://lp.constantcontactpages.com/su/epvz9va

Thank you for signing this petition.  Please pass it on.