9 minute read
Editorial/Opinion ...........Pages 12,13 Education
Student loans? What student loans? Biden ignores plight in SOTU
By STEPHON JOHNSON
Amsterdam News Staff
In last week’s State of the Union address, U.S. President Joe Biden outlined his agenda for the next two years of his term. None of them mentioned student loans.
White House officials have repeatedly told the media that they would pass a student loan forgiveness bill since the president can’t do it on his own. But with canceling student loans being a major promise in his campaign, some have felt betrayed.
Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (D-NY) said that Biden missed an opportunity during his state of the union and the speech left a lot to be desired.
“There are some things that were left unsaid that we are really going to have to work on as a party, in order to really speak to constituencies that have historically supported the president, whose turnout we need, whose support we need right now and in the coming years, that perhaps haven’t heard their issues spoken to in the way that they wanted to hear it,” she said in an interview with Rachel Maddow. She also called the expectation of Democratic success at the polls in the midterms “delusional” if they don’t come through on the promises they made.
Alan Collinge, founder of StudentLoanJustice.org, said that the president gave Americans false hope.
“President Biden has brazenly and blatantly gone back on his word,” said Collinge. “The federal lending system has catastrophically failed, but the president apparently wants to pretend for the next three years that it has not. This is a huge mistake on all levels.”
Joe Hughes, 40, was blunt with his thoughts.
“I’m trying to think of something that isn’t just a string of curse words,” Hughes said before collecting himself. “You know what’s just as infuriating? The fact that he never mentioned was, as near as I could tell, barely even a story. So many people, rightfully, brought up his (absurd) call to give police forces even more money, but the complete absence of any mention of student loan forgiveness, a tent pole of the campaign, felt like it was largely met with indifference. “It’s depressing.”
According to the U.S. Government Accountability Office, a report sent to congressional committees found that almost half of all Americans could default on their loans and that the U.S. Department of Education might have the wrong addresses and locations (outdated ones), which makes it harder to find those who need to pay student loans.
Collectively, Americans have student loans upwards of $1.7 trillion. Biden campaigned on providing at least $10,000 in student loan forgiveness for those who still owe payments. The report mentions that the U.S. Department of Education has worked on ways to inform, provide and assist those in debt who need a repayment plan or those who also have auto debt.
In December, Biden extended Student Loan Repayment for another 90 days after there was an uproar over making people pay for them after the financial pause COVID-19 put on their lives.
This issue wasn’t addressed despite the president’s consistent push to get the economy going again and desire to make college more affordable.
Two organizations have laid out reports showing that student loans remain an important issue with Americans.
According to a survey provided by The Joint Center for Political and Economic Studies, a Black American think tank, late February, “While 73% of Black Americans agree with forgiving up to $50,000 of student loan debt, slightly more—76%—agree with forgiving all student loan debt.”
“The results of our poll paint a clear picture: the economy may be rebounding, but most Black Americans have yet to feel any actual signs of improvement,” stated Jessica Fulton, vice president, Policy, Joint Center for Political and Economic Studies. “As Black Americans continue to serve as a lifeline for the economic well-being of our nation—especially during the COVID-19 pandemic— it is crucial that they are centered in our recovery.”
The same study revealed that 21% of Black Americans approve of the job the Republicans are doing.
But the issue has as much to do with Albany and local cities within the state as it does nationally. The Education Trust-New York conducted a poll of their own and found out how much student loans play into education and/or considering where to go for an education.
Seventy percent of responses said that New York State and New York City could do more to help students succeed in higher education.
“The cost of college and rising student loan debt are key concerns for young people in New York City, particularly among Black and Latinx respondents and those from working and middle class backgrounds, who were most likely to say that cost was a key factor in their decision not to attend college (61% of Black respondents, 62% of Latinx respondents, 52% of working class respondents, and 66% of middle class respondents),” read part of the study.
“Well-designed postsecondary pathways allow students to optimize the myriad of resources available to them,” stated Kurt M. Thiede, manager of the New York State Association for College Admissions Counseling’s Student Success Project. “The responses to this poll strongly support current efforts that assist students by providing planning tools and the ability to use them effectively. State leaders need to commit to additional human resources to ensure that all New York students receive the guidance necessary to build and implement their plans for future success.”
REACH NY’s survey had a confidence interval of +/-4.9% and all interviews were conducted via phone.
I OWE IT TO ME TO GO FAR. FAR.
PUBLIC NOTICE
Dated: Friday, March 4th 2022
KAMAUU // TRACK 01 DEMOCRACY PREP NEW YORK SCHOOL MEETING OF BOARD OF TRUSTEES
WHEN YOUR KID CAN’T FIND THE LANGUAGE, FIND THE LYRICS.
USE THEM TO START A CONVERSATION WITH YOUR KIDS ABOUT EMOTIONAL WELLBEING. LISTEN TO THE ALBUM, FIND TOOLS AND GET TIPS FROM PROFESSIONALS AT
Pursuant to Section 104 Public Notice of the Open Meetings Law, and pursuant to Executive Order 202.1, this notice is to inform the public that the board of trustees of Democracy Prep New York School will hold a remote meeting by teleconference on:
“I think that the approach that we took in trying to understand why we were seeing such a worst hospitalization rate among Black New Yorkers forces us to ask the question about what are the many different factors that are contributing to this disparity?” said Knudsen. “Because there is not just one factor that’s easily fixable or that you can pinpoint. We decided to frame it as a cascade showing that there are factors that are more downstream, like the way any disparities in the healthcare system—access to care, access to testing. But then we also really had to shine the light on all the upstream factors and histories of structural racism that put Black people at higher risk of chronic disease that put them in positions where they have less access to health care in general, less access to jobs they can work remotely, so they’re, you know, going out into the community getting exposed.”
The areas targeted by TRIE have several other health issues that go unchecked leading to a higher risk of immunocompromised New Yorkers, including those with diabetes. According to the America’s Health Rankings annual report with the United Health Foundation, 15.1% of adult Black New Yorkers were told by a health professional that they have diabetes. Much of this has to do with food deserts leading to consumption of processed foods. According to the management consulting firm McKinsey & Company, in 2020 there were more convenience stores than grocery stores, restaurants and farmers markets in Black neighborhoods.
In a study published by Health Affairs, a peer-reviewed website, Black patients were two and a half times more likely to have at least one negative descriptive term used in the electronic records of Black vs. white patients. At a medical center in Chicago, Black patients’ records were more likely to contain the words, “not compliant,” “refused” and “not adherent.” This study was conducted between January 2019 and October 2020.
Data from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention showed that Black Americans are 22 percent less likely than white Americans to receive monoclonal antibody treatment for COVID-19. Monoclonal antibodies are created in labs designed to fight infections once presented inside the body.
How did the city fight some of these issues locally?
Knudsen said that the health department was “really focused on making sure there’s good access, particularly in Black and Brown communities.
“Just one example, around vaccines,” Knudsen said. “You know, we’ve engaged in more than a year of our historic vaccination campaign where we’ve really focused on working with community partners to get town halls and other community engagement events to help the community feel like they can trust the vaccine and they know where to get it.”
As a part of the effort, the health department introduced the Coalition to End Racism in Clinical Algorithms (CERCA), which aims to end racial adjustments in clinical algorithms that are used by healthcare providers in making medical decisions. The process, according to the CERCA, perpetuates the biology of people based on race alone.
Their efforts to combat this issue have been a relative success. In July 2021 the number of fully vaccinated adults in TRIE and TRIE zip codes was 18.9% and 64.4% respectively. By December, those numbers hit 90.5% and 95.2%.
“…At the start of the middle of the vaccine campaign in July, only 14 out of the 74 zip codes in those (TRIE) neighborhoods had reached our vaccine targets, which was to have 70% of the population vaccinated,” said Knudsen. “And now it’s February 2022, 73 out of the 74 zip codes have reached that target. So, it just goes to show how important it is to do that trust building and community partnerships to make sure people have access to information and access to the vaccine.”
When the AmNews asked if the city was moving too fast getting back to “normal,” we were directed to the colorcoded COVID-19 Alert Level Guidance established on the city’s website. Despite recent reports of a new, more transmissible version of the original Omicron variant (known as BA.2), and cases found in nearly half of all states in the country but circulating at a low level, the COVID-19 risk on the city’s website is coded green meaning “Low.”
Courtesy of: NYC Dept. of Health and Mental Hygiene
You may be eligible for COVID-19 Treatment
People who have tested positive for COVID-19 may be able to receive outpatient treatment to help symptoms and avoid hospitalization. Treatment works best if you begin it soon after you start feeling symptoms, so get tested right away. Monoclonal antibody treatment is a one-time IV or injection to help fight COVID-19 while your immune system produces its own antibodies. Oral antiviral pills are taken for five days and helps stop the virus and keeps it from replicating, which reduces the amount of virus in your body. There are currently two authorized pills - paxlovid and molunpiravir. Both monoclonal antibody and oral antiviral treatments can reduce your risk of becoming sick from COVID-19 and avoid hospitalization. COVID-19 treatments are not a substitute for vaccination. COVID-19 vaccination and booster shots remain the best protection against getting severely sick due to COVID-19.
