Are you still paying on your student loans years after graduating from college? Do you have a child who is going to college and has student debt? Do you work part-time and struggle with student loan payments? Student debt is now the second largest form of consumer debt, totaling $1.3 trillion dollars. In fact, over the past three decades, the cost of college has grown more than 1,150% - outpacing inflation, healthcare costs, and other living expenses, and is a leading factor in income inequality. We are excited about a project called (Un)Popular Economics that we are offering to our members on Saturday, August 15, from 9 AM to 5 PM at South Seattle Colleges' Georgetown Campus, 6737 Corson Ave. So., Seattle (corner of E. Marginal Way). (Un)Popular Economics is a workshop in the spirit of popular education that explores the challenges of student debt and finds solutions to reduce that debt for our members and their families on the path toward a debt-free future. There are four components of the training: - Discussing the importance of story sharing and ending the stigma attached to student debt.
- Exploring how student debt surpassed credit card and auto-loan debt and when college got so expensive.
- Finding ways to reduce monthly payments and getting on the path towards debt-relief.
- Building local campaigns that empower workers to challenge the debt-based economy and win a debt-free future.
Please send an email to us at aftwashington@aftwa.org letting us know you are interested in attending this one-day workshop on August 15. Space is limited. Even if you don't attend the workshop, please complete an anonymous members-only survey by August 7th so we can find out how prevalent student debt is among our members. This will give us information that will help us meet your needs by providing these kinds of resources as well as that will inform our legislative agenda. The (Un)Popular Economics training program is a partnership of AFT Washington, Jobs with Justice, Washington Federation of State Employees 28, UW Grad Students with United Auto Workers Local 4121, Communications Workers of America, and The Highlander Institute. If you have questions about the workshop, please contact Tracey Whitten, AFT Washington, at twhitten@aftwa.org or 206-432-8076.
P.S. If you are interested in becoming a trainer, we will also offer a train-the-trainer series (prior to the workshop) from 9 AM - 5 PM on Thursday, August 13th, and Friday, August 14th to give you the tools to work with your own local members. Then the workshop the following day (Saturday, August 15th) will give you the hands-on experience for facilitating a workshop. If you would like to be a trainer, contact me at kstrickland@aftwa.org or 206-244-4777. | 