Opportunity Knocks

Until what? Until what?

Until I was handed the mic to talk to Secretary Duncan. But before I give away all the tidbits related to that, this opportunity almost slipped past me.

As I mentioned, I shot my hand up as soon as Sec. Duncan began to take questions. Even though I was sitting in the front row, I was seated off to the side and the volunteers who were helping hand out mics kept missing me. After each question, I anxiously raised mine again and tried to get the attention of one of the mic holders. No such luck! Sec. Duncan took four questions, and then he said, "I can only take one more." By that time a lovely, curly-haired woman in a sharp, gray suit stood behind me with a mic. She whispered, "we'll get to you next."

Yes! Yes! I thought. Don't blow this, Cryn! You have a lot of people to represent. Be calm. Be calm . . . You're gonna do well.

I looked at all the notes I'd been writing furiously. I flipped through Rob's proposal again, a document that I had now gone over for the thousandth time this week. I was prepared to start with an introduction that included six statistics:

(1) This academic year (2009-2010), there will approximately 6.9 million students borrowing for school

(2) There were nearly $131 billion in outstanding private loans in 2008. In addition, there is $544 billion in outstanding federal loans for fiscal year 2009, up from $502 billion in 2008, and that's according to the Department of Education

(3) The average debts of students graduating with loans rose from $18,796 in 2006 to $20,098 in 2007, according to the Project on Student Debt (so you, dear reader, are aware, the Project on Student Debt is staffed by employees of TICAS.org. TICAS was founded by Robert Shireman who is now the  Deputy Undersecretary of Education). Since student lending is inflationary (i.e., whether the overall economy is inflationary or deflationary student borrowing continues to go up), the average debt now is estimated at $23,000! (According to some education policy experts this amount of debt is reasonable. They also argue that borrowing for college is sensible. I bet my readers and thousands and thousands of people who belong to the FSLDM would beg to differ with those number crunchers. But I digress . . .)

(4) 2/3 of students borrow money for their college education

(5) Loans this past year (2008-09 academic year) grew around 25% to $75.1 billion*

(6) Our membership is now well over 228,000 individuals!

The curly-haired, sharply dressed woman whispered, "You're up next . . ." But just as she said that, Mr. Duncan said, "no more questions after this one."

Across the hall, a young woman stood up and began to speak about the abysmal pay that K-12 teachers earn. She was well-spoken and made a point to say that she has a sister who's a teacher and living at home.

Yes! I thought. If I was able to speak, I would say something about how it's not only teachers who are living at home, but all sorts of professionals. It's related to a larger issue: student loan debt! 

I sighed and told the curly-haired volunteer, "Oh, I'm so disappointed."

She replied sympathetically, "he is on such a tight schedule. He can only take so many questions."

"I know. I know . . ." I shook my head in disappointment and closed up my notebooks. "Maybe next time," I muttered.

But then something - in my mind - miraculous happened. Sec. Duncan agreed to take one more question. The volunteer tapped my shoulder and said, "You'll need to stand up to speak to him."

The cameramen, who are just a few feet away from me, swirled the camera around to tape me. I took the mic, tried to contain my nervousness and excitement. (Is anyone noticing that I'm shaking? I worried).

But now was the time for me to speak on behalf of hundreds of thousands of people (perhaps millions). I stood up, a light shined brightly upon me, and I began to speak:

"Secretary Duncan . . . first off, I want to say that I was one of the many who voted for change. . . . I could throw statistics at you, but we both know those statistics. Let me introduce myself," I said. The large crowd seemed frozen and painfully silent.

"My name is Cryn Johannsen, and I am the promotional writer for Robert Applebaum's Forgive Student Loan Debt Movement. We're asking for a bail . . . not a bailout, we're asking for help with this student lending crisis. There are too many student burdened with debt. Our group has well over 228,000 supporters. Robert and I receive terrible stories from people who are in really bad financial situations as a result of their loan debt. You're familiar with these stories, too. I've also reached out to the Reverend Jesse Jackson. I know that this issue concerns him, too. Mr. Applebaum's proposal makes a lot of sense, and is in line with Main Street ideas. It is my hope that you will be willing to sit down with us to discuss this proposal
further . . ."

There are two things that I found encouraging about Duncan's response and the way he responded when I stated who I was there to represent:

(a) When I mentioned the FSLDM's name, he seemed to be familiar with it. (Guess what that means? Many of you must be writing letters to him like I am!).

(b) His response was genuine and sympathetic. He recognized that it's a problem. However, I am not entirely convinced that the solutions he mentioned, i.e.,  the new IBR program , the change in Pell Grants, and the possibility of having one's loans forgiven (after - *gasp* - 10 years) if they go into a line of work that is of service to the nation.

What matters is that I was at a large gathering in D.C. and went on behalf of all of you. I was able to speak directly to Sec. Duncan. Afterward, many people came up to me and thanked me for what I said. One older woman from the "B" School told me, "I wish your group had been around when I got my MBA!"

The positive reaction from fellow University of Chicago alumni was just as uplifting as my chance to speak to Sec. Arne Duncan. After all, Chicago has a reputation for being conservative. (I won't bore you with the long list of the neocons from Chicago who informed Bush's decision to invade Iraq and so forth). Plus, many of the people with whom I spoke were older, and yet they understood the significance of our movement. One person told me, after I mentioned that many educated individuals are fleeing the country for better paying jobs, "that's called a brain drain."

So what do I now ask of all of you?

Please write to Secretary Arne Duncan. (His address is: U.S. Department of Education, 400 Maryland Avenue, SW, Washington, D.C. 20202)

Let him know that you heard I spoke to him, and you are writing to urge him to listen to Robert's proposal. Tell him that he has the power now to change things for hundreds of thousands, probably millions, of educated, middle-class people who are currently stuck in a financial debt hell. Share your personal stories about the things you dream to have - a home, a car, a child - but cannot as a result of the crushing debt you accrued as a result of going to college. You never cease to move me with your personal stories of struggle. (Most days I cry after reading about your travails, and that emotion moves me to work even harder, to write even more letters, and to debate for a good cause).


* Note to a unprofessional critic of mine: loan volume, average borrowing, cumulative debt may be different calculations. However they should all reconcile in some fashion when taking into account enrollment changes, prices, years, and what kinds of loans are included and which not. The Education Department seems to include more types of loans than, for instance, the College Board.


But these particularities don't matter. I've made my arguments clear and I am far from being "untruthful." Furthermore, I would never have a so-called friend attack someone and call them a "cult leader" and an "egotist." Fact remains: I'm on the right side of this mission. None of this "stuff," however, matters. After all, I am ill-informed and just contribute to "blog chatter." 

Setting the scene, and an emissary's errand - attending the University of Chicago's education reform panel

I attended the University of Chicago's forum on education reform on behalf of FSLDM supporters and as an alumna of the school (A.M. '02) last night at the Andrew W. Mellon Auditorium at 1301 Constitution Ave NW in Washington, D.C.  This event, hosted by President Robert Zimmer, was called "Chicago Contributes." A panel of education policy experts, moderated by the well-known broadcast journalist Ray Suarez (who, like me, holds an A.M. in the social sciences from Chicago) , discussed issues relating to urban education and improving things at the k-12 levels. Incidentally, earlier in the afternoon the forum also included a panel that covered health care reform, and the honorary speaker for that talk was Secretary of Health and Human Services Kathleen Sebelius (she hails from my home state - Kansas. Hoorah!).

As most of you already know, the honorary speaker for the panel on education reform was none other than Secretary of Education Arne Duncan. We need to get his attention, and that was my intent as your emissary. My mission: to introduce myself and to promote our movement! Although the focus was primarily on pre-k and k-12 education reform, Secretary Duncan and the panelists made some passing references to university education. The most notable remark was when Secretary Duncan stated, "President Obama has a goal that by 2020 we have a higher percentage of college graduates than we do now." (Obama is calling on all Americans to attend at least 1 year of college, and that's why they are focused on initiatives to help community colleges retain students, as Duncan mentioned last night). 

Later in the evening, Obama's Senior Advisor David Axelrod gave a talk about policy endeavors for the future, and mentioned the successes he sees they've had thus far as a new administration. During his talk over cocktails and hors d'oeuvres, Mr. Axelrod made it clear that these two issues - education reform and health care reform - are top priorities for the Obama administration. Keep this comment in mind folks - their attention to education reform and - I hope - their willingness to listen to our appeal makes it all the more critical for us to begin mobilizing this extraordinary grassroots movement. Therefore Rob and I say: let's turn the FSLDM into an actual lobbying group for the welfare of higher education students! There is no doubt, we have a narrow window of time to succeed, so we must act fast to demand change. 

But before I jump to the details about the end of the evening and to the end point of this fledgling, yet increasingly robust grassroots movement (after all, we're just gettin' started, and we're just gettin' y'all fired up!), I must begin with the first steps of my somewhat comical journey to this event.

Getting to the actual event was a comedy of sorts. Although at the time, I was not finding myself, apparently, as lead clown all that funny. The universe was playing many tricks on me yesterday, and somebody, somewhere, was laughing up a storm. (If I had been on stilts, it would have been even funnier). First, I  struggled to find a parking spot that was (a) actually affordable, (b) not in a tow zone,  and (c) reserved for tourist buses only. I also realized upon my trip to downtown D.C. that my wallet was not in my business bag. Said wallet contained money that would have allowed me to park in obscenely overpriced parking garages near the National Mall. I drove in circles trying to find that perfect space that was (a) free and (b) not located in a tow zone. No such luck. Filled with disappointment and embarrassment, I pulled into yet another unaffordable parking garage. I called my husband and within a few short minutes of brainstorming we solved the problem. Wallet was received from a friend who was commuting from where we live in NOVA to D.C. That friend saved the day!

At the conclusion of the one act play called, The Drama of Cryn's Missing Wallet, I jogged in heels down 13th and Pennsylvania Ave to Constitution Ave (I have Nordstrom to thank for teaching me how to run in heels), and arrived at my destination. With just 2 minutes to spare, I registered and received my name tag. But none of this could have happened without Robert Applebaum's support. In fact, I told Rob about this event a week ago, and considered paying to attend out of my own pocket. Before I made that decision Robert solved the problem.

After I'd sent him an email about my longing to go, he quickly wrote back, "done."

With the small amount of funds he's received, Robert graciously offered to send me to attend this $75 event. That is further evidence of his commitment to this cause and to our professional and personal relationship. *Please make sure to thank Rob for sending me to this event to be a representative of all supporters of the FSLDM.*

Although I wanted to bring up the frustrating fact that recently Sallie Mae and Nelnet won 5-year contracting bids to service all federally guaranteed loans, I realized that wouldn't be doing us any favors . . . I had a strategy, but I had to wait.

President Zimmer introduced all the panelists, Ray Suarez, and finally Secretary Duncan. The large crowd stood up and clapped for several minutes upon his entrance into the grand hall. I sat at the very front of the crowd, just a few feet from the panelists and Mr. Duncan.

Mr. Duncan gave a good speech. Then it was time for question and answer. I raised my hand as soon as they opened the floor for questions, and I almost lost my chance to speak to him directly. That's until . . .