Help us Build a Debtors’ Movement! Please consider contributing to support the movement. Your tax-deductible donation helps us fight to create the just economic system we deserve.

We're working with lawyers to ensure working people get the student debt cancellation they are legally entitled to.

Join or support us.
debtcollective.org/support/dona...

At every step of the way, the Trump-McMahon Dept of Ed makes decisions that create chaos and put student debtors in the worst financial position possible — all while making up ridiculous legal arguments that are not rooted in fact. More often than not, they contradict themselves.

2. Next, the DOJ lawyers essentially say "student debtors actually make a pretty good point, but it's too bad because they raised it too late."

They argue our member-debtors took too long to get back to the courts.

This makes no sense.

Our motion to intervene came days later.

The Ed Dept makes a few arguments in legalese here—but put simply, they say that student debtors shouldn't even be intervening in this lawsuit because this isn't about them. And if it *is* about them, well they should have read the WSJ to know they're too powerless to fight back.

The WSJ is not how the government officially communicates with debtors. Nor should debtors alter their financial lives based on a WSJ *opinion* piece. Should also be worth noting the article they cite is literally paywalled.

You can't even read it without a subscription.

After filing our motion to intervene, the Dept of Education responded (which they were forced to do).

In their response, they admit something wild.

1. First, the Trump DOJ lawyers say debtors should have known SAVE would end because they said so in a Wall Street Journal op-ed.

But new courts came along and killed SAVE "again."

The Ed Dept. told people SAVE was over + media repeated it.

But we filed a motion to intervene and said to the courts, "hi, you cannot decide these things without considering student debtors — we're the ones who matter here."

That means SAVE existed again—momentarily. SAVE allows for automatic student debt relief, so when that lawsuit was voided, people should have received cancellation.

That didn't happen.

So we sued.

People were/are legally entitled to relief.

They should get it—that's the law.

As a refresher, Republican AGs sued the Biden admin to eliminate the SAVE student debt plan—the most affordable student loan plan ever.

Trump got elected, so the lawsuit renamed to Missouri v Trump.

The court then said "you guys don't disagree anymore, so this lawsuit is void."

The courts prematurely killed the SAVE student loan plan without evaluating the merits of Missouri v Biden.

So our members filed a motion to intervene.

What the Dept. of Ed just said in their response is actually pretty mind-boggling.

They admit debtor interests don't matter.

We need to unionize—not just as workers, but as debtors and tenants and internet users alike. We need a variety of unions.

The Trump administration's proposed rule change says public servants must either fall in line with the fascists or lose their shot at a debt-free life — forever.

Tell your Senator to protect PSLF by signing on to cosponsor the PSLF CRA.
click.everyaction.com/k/129594157/...

If 30 Senate Dems call a CRA vote, this regulation can go to the floor for a full vote.

Senate Dems are a few votes shy.

Here's who isn't on board yet:

Warnock
Kelly
Gallego
Ossoff
Schatz
Murphy
Bennett
Slotkin
Fetterman
Baldwin
Warner
Hirono
Peters
Smith
Cortez Masto
Heinrich

The good news is there is a window of opportunity to fight back on this exact regulation.

All Department of Education regulations are subject to congressional review, which means Congress can overturn this regulation all on their own without waiting for the courts.

How?

Let's be clear — this is illegal.

There are fights happening in court about it right now.

This also proves what we've known for a long time: student debt is a form of social control.

It was never about "paying off a loan"—it's about keeping an underclass docile, weak and poor.

Trump wants to use this rule to take PSLF eligibility away from any person/organization he dislikes.

Health professional that cares for immigrants?

Work in a sanctuary city—or for a blue state government?

This rule would give Trump carte blanche powers to strip debt relief.

The Trump Department of Education wrote a dangerous new regulation that would strip Public Service Loan Forgiveness (PSLF) from people based on their "political ideology."

It's a completely naked fascist attempt.

But Senate Dems can stop him—it just requires a few more votes.

The problem is not that people are living beyond their means—we're being denied the means the live. Credit card debt for groceries, student loans, medical bills, skyrocketing rent — everything simply costs too much and we're being punished for it. We need an entirely new economy.

Every single junk fee that renters are forced to pay should be banned.

You are in crushing household debt because the money that could go to paying for your salary or your health care or your kids' school is being used on weapons and military industrial complex.

BAN RUBS

Does your landlord do this thing where you get a utility bill for a portion of the entire building's utility usage instead of a bill for your own personal usage? That's called RUBS (Ratio Utility Billing System) and we think it should be banned everywhere.
banrubs.org

Millions of student-loan accounts are being transferred to the Treasury. There's a new push to slam the brakes. Sen. Elizabeth Warren wants to know if Trump's plan to transfer the federal student-loan portfolio to the Treasury is in borrowers' best interest.

The Trump administration is trying to illegally transfer the student loan portfolio to Treasury.

There are several problems with this — legally and administratively.

So far, Senator Warren is leading the charge on pushing back. Other Dems must follow.
www.businessinsider.com/student-loan...

Mamdani vs. the Credit Rating Machine Credit Rating Agencies Ruin Debtors’ Lives — and They’re Coming for a City Near You

Mamdani vs. the Credit Rating Machine

Credit Rating Agencies Ruin Debtors’ Lives — and They’re Coming for a City Near You

New piece for our substack 'In The Red'
open.substack.com/pub/debtcoll...

The Trump admin is full-on financially destroying student debtors right now without much of a fight from big national Democrats.

They're raising payments, transferring a $2 trillion portfolio to an entirely different agency with no oversight, etc

Schumer, Jeffries and Dems are silent.

I got this email earlier (including the very agressive multiple Trumpian mentions of "the ILLEGAL SAVE act") and it immediately made me so stressed out everything create and positive flew out of my brain 👍 This thread helped!

It’s time we organize to fight for real solutions to the root causes of the student debt crisis.

You should write to your member of Congress and demand they co-sponsor the College For All bill sitting in Congress.

Take Action: secure.everyaction.com/peji52-KV02I...

Many will be forced into default.

First: Don’t let your member of Congress off the hook. Student debt is a policy failure that Congress created, and we don’t need more “income driven repayment” plans that have never worked in the past.

People who rush to switch plans might regret it if the courts reexamine the case at all.

Make no mistake. When the Republicans voted to pass Trump’s “One Big Beautiful Bill” they voted to hike your payment to the point where millions will simply not have the resources to pay.

If that happens, it would be yet another twist that changes everything for debtors.

Again, we can’t predict what will happen next—and we cannot count on the courts—but making a decision too soon could cost you, literally.

We cannot count on the courts to save us, but there is still a slight chance that the lower court judge will allow student debtors, including Debt Collective members and plaintiffs, to intervene in the lawsuit trying to kill SAVE.