Comparing Notes

What have you, dear readers, been doing to help the cause?

I don't mean to sound like a task master, and I know that you are not my pupils. But let me share my activities with you. I hope we can compare notes.

For the Forgive Student Loan Debt Movement I have done the following:

1) Talked to Jim Sano - he helped to pass the resolution in Albany to ask Washington to forgive student loan debt. (Guess what! I beat the NYT in reporting this article. I may be small, but I am the little train that can and will!).
2) I've written to other politicians (I will be posting a letter shortly which I wrote to Sen. Dick Durbin).
3) I've contacted reporters and asked them why they're failing to reveal important information about "organizations" like the College Board (who settled a while back for kickbacks they were given to directors of financial aid). 
4) I've set up an interview with Mark Kantrowitz .

5) I've written several pitches to Kojo Nnamdi,  Ira Glass , Kai Ryssdal promoting Applebaum's movement. (Goooo Rob!).
6) I'm going to canvas for Delegate David Poisson (32nd district, Loudon County, VA) - he is very sympathetic to this movement. He holds a J.D. and a Ph.D. (and several master's, I believe. One thing is certain, he's ahead of me when it comes to collecting advanced degrees, and I'm a pro.).
7) I'm speaking to a reporter for the local NPR station in D.C. this coming Friday (WAMU) - for locals in D.C., we know that as good ol' 88.5 (stay tuned!).
8) I'm crafting arguments against articles on their comment sections and in my blog that claimed - based upon that dastardly survey that Sallie Mae manufactured and then spread to major news sources - students and their families are "borrowing less." (Tim Ranzetta has a GREAT counter response to that here). SHAME ON YOU MAINSTREAM PRESS!

I hope this list may give you an idea of how to think of strategic ways in getting this movement into public discourse. Thanks again for all of your support!

CALL TO ACTION: Write to Ira Glass and This American Life about Applebaum's Movement!

What better way to promote this movement than on This American Life with Ira Glass? I wrote a letter to Mr. Glass and the Executive Producers of TAL a few days ago.

This story about shared debts and dashed hopes is an interesting one. I pitched it as such [truncated version]:

August 14, 2009

Dear Mr. Glass and Executive Producers of This American Life:

I got a great story idea. It's a tale about a guy named Robert Applebaum. You see, he's gotten a whole lot of powerful people and their lobbying friends inside the beltway in a tizzy. (I am proud to say that I'm part of that effort and have been debating heavily with analysts at the College Board over the past few days). But what's this tale all about? It's about the student loan crisis. The College Board was recently written about in an article entitled, "Is Student Loan Debt Really a Problem." That story has not been very popular. The link below will lead you to the outraged public. In that story, two people from the College Board, Patricia Steele and Sandra Baum, argued that the stories circulating around the putative "student loan crisis" are sensationalistic.

http://www.usnews.com/articles/business/paying-for-college/2009/08/12/is-student-debt-really-a-problem/comments/

I was one of the first to alert Robert Applebaum, the Founder and Executive Director of the Forgive Student Loan Debt Movement, and he let his supporters know about this article. This article is not the first to be published on the topic. In fact, if you take a look at Appleabaum's website here (http://www.forgivestudentloandebt.com/), you'll see that he's posted related pieces. The posters have similar things (there are those who are totally against it too) to say. The ones who support this movement tell their stories of what they owe and how they have decided not to have children, how they can't buy homes, cars - simple things. The haters tell those people that they were "irresponsible" for deciding to go to school. The haters call the debtors "brats," "snobs," etc. As you can see, it's a heated topic.

I also have a blog that's related to education here (http://alleducationmatters.blogspot.com/).

So, you're out of ideas for your next show. I'm the FIRST person to ever suggest a show. Whaddya think? Do you want to do a show on the student lending crisis? It's a hot topic, and it keeps getting hotter . . .

Sincerely,

Ms. C. Cryn Johannsen


Here's my CALL TO ACTION. Write something quirky and yet professional (is that possible? I think it is) to Mr. Glass and the Executive Producers of TAL. Ask them to do a story on our movement.

Their email is: web@thislife.org. Send them a note to promote the movement!