Students and Legislators Come Together to Support Higher Education Debt Relief

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

March 13, 2013

Minnesota Public Interest Research Group (MPIRG)

Contact: Josh Winters, Executive Director, MPIRG, josh@mpirg.org, 612-627-4035 x300

              Joey Dobson, Campus Organizer, MPIRG, joey@mpirg.org, 515-239-7404

Students and Legislators Come Together
to Support Higher Education Debt Relief

WHO:   Representative Dorholt, Chief House Author
Senator Clausen, Chief Senate Author
Brian Dailey-Arndt, University of Minnesota – Twin Cities
Matthew Fredericks, University of Minnesota – Morris
Sarah Knispel, Macalester College
Emma Wright, MPIRG Board Chair, University of Minnesota – Twin Cities

WHEN:Thursday, March 14, 10:15AM

WHERE:
Capitol, Room 125
100 Rev Dr Martin Luther King Jr. Boulevard, St Paul, MN 55155

WHAT:
Press Conference
Release: Opportunity Minnesota Economic Analysis Report
              & Student Debt Yearbook

ADDITIONAL INFORMATION:

The rising costs of attaining a higher education degree are more burdensome now than ever for prospective students, and further bar low-income youth from entering the middle class. Tuition at the University of Minnesota-Twin Cities alone has increased 174% since 2000. But this trend is not unique to the U of M – it is true across the board in both public and private institutions.  As a result, Minnesota now has the dubious distinction of having the 3^rd highest average higher education debt in the country at a whopping $29,058, according to an annual report by the Project on Student Debt. 

Opportunity Minnesota (HF 1097 and SF 997) is an innovative piece of legislation based off of a bill that passed Maine’s legislature overwhelmingly in 2007.  It relieves student loan debts for Minnesota residents that have graduated from a Minnesota higher education institution and continue to work in the state following graduation.  It is designed to both relieve student debt and remove the cost barrier that prevents many Minnesotans from attending college. 

MPIRG is a grassroots, nonpartisan, nonprofit, student-directed organization that empowers and trains students and engages the community to take collective action in the public interest throughout the state of Minnesota.

# # #