'Death Should Not Be the Only Relief': Seniors Lead Their First Action Against Student Debt

Carrying mock tombstones reading, "Death is not a relief plan" and "Stop burying us in debt," a group of older debtors held the first-ever senior-led mass action for student debt relief outside the White House on Thursday.

Borrowers over 50 are the fastest-growing demographic of student debtors, and some of them are calling on the Biden-Harris administration to take advantage of federal regulations that empower the Department of Education to cancel debt based on age.

"The only comprehensive student debt relief plan that the federal government offers right now is death," Debt Collective creative media strategist Maddie Clifford said in front of the White House. "That is the only way people can escape from these student loan payments."

The participants in the vigil, who collectively owe more than $1 million in student loans and include members of the Debt Collective's "50 Over 50" caucus, shared their stories as they demanded relief.

"I would have never imagined approaching my 60th birthday with $211,388 worth of student debt," said Renita Walker, a Debt Collective member from Sandy Springs, Georgia. "The idea itself is paralyzing. It is the realization that I will probably work myself to death, literally."

Walker took out loans both to continue her education as a single mother after her husband died and to help her two children pay for school. The loan payments ballooned to the point that she was paying $1,800 a month until she took money out of her 401(k) to bring the payment down to around $1,300 a month, still more than her mortgage.

"I just want to say like many of the people here standing behind me, this was not something we asked for," Walker said. "Unfortunately, the system is broken and we have to live with the results of that."

"For decades, millions of older debtors have crouched in shame, imagining ourselves as failures when in reality the system has failed us. But we will no longer be duped into suffering alone."

Fellow Debt-Collective member and Georgia resident Athena Blue, a 67-year-old retired nurse, also took out Parent Plus loans to pay for her children's education.

Blue spoke of overcoming the shame of indebtedness by learning the history of how former U.S. President Ronald Reagan had pushed for the current student loan system in order to make it more difficult for working-class Americans to attend university as a backlash to campus protests in the 1960s and 70s.

"The debt that I'm in isn't my fault," Blue said. "It was created purposely by people like former President Ronald Reagan who believed that only certain people should have the right to higher education."

Blue said she had managed to pay off all of her interest on her loan in 2020 when it was transferred to another provider and she had to start over.

"This burden of a loan threatens my retirement," Blue said, "So how can you, Congress, the Department of Education, and the White House allow this to continue? How can you allow seniors to be subject to predators like this? Have you no moral compass? No shame?"

Debt Collective member Alicia Barnes, who joined the Navy to avoid taking on any more debt, said she had discovered in a meeting with the Department of Education that day that her service provider had illegally placed her debt into default while she was deployed.

"Instead of including a Suicide Hotline for veterans on every piece of communication we receive, the causes of these tragedies should be met with real solutions including absolving some of the debt we accrued during our service because of this compounded interest and illegal activity by these debt collectors," Barnes said.

Every speaker at Thursday's vigil was a woman, as are the majority of student loan debtors. A disproportionate number of student debtors are Black women in particular.

Many of the speakers went into debt to pursue careers in public service fields like education, pastoral counseling, and social work.

"We are caring human beings that wanted to help out the world," said Debt Collective member Mary Donahue of Maryland. "We just need a little help."

The Debt Collective insists that "death should not be the only relief plan for their old, unpayable student loans."

"Decades of broken student relief programs, corrupt loan services, and government neglect have meant that millions of older Americans dragged decadesold student debts into their retirement," said Gail Gardner, who is 77 years old and owes $549,497.20. "Absent swift, bold policy change, and clear political leadership, this crisis will only deepen. The debtors will get older. The debts will get bigger."

That is why she said she had joined with other older debtors to "demand the White House and the Department of Education finally take responsibility for clearing the student debts burdening myself and millions of older Americans."

Both Gardner and Clifford pointed out that discharging debts based on age was something that the Biden-Harris administration could do without running afoul of right-wing attempts to block President Joe Biden's other attempts at student debt relief.

"We are urging the Biden Harris administration to work as fast and as hard as Republicans are working to keep us in debt to free borrowers from these loans, and they can do it today," Clifford said.

Gardner concluded: "For decades, millions of older debtors have crouched in shame, imagining ourselves as failures when in reality the system has failed us. But we will no longer be duped into suffering alone. This week for the first time in history, older student debtors have gone to Washington to demand our student loan debts get canceled in our lifetime, not at our funerals. We can't afford to wait."