The Occupy Wall Street movement kicked off three years ago, in the summer of 2011. The movement was created to address the burdens that came as a result of the 2008 Financial Meltdown. Today, the group’s Strike Debt Initiative is making major strides. It announced Wednesday morning that it has absolved $3.8 million of debt.
The Strike Debt Initiative has tackled private debts head on. The majority of the country’s student loan debt is from the federal government. Collectively, students owe over $1 trillion. Although the group could not cover these federal loans, they eliminated the private debts of over 2,000 students at Everest College since January.
Everest College is one of the largest for-profit educational institutions. You have probably seen the commercials telling you to call in to kick-start your career. The college, ran by Corinthian Colleges, is set to sell or close its 107 campuses and leave its 74,000 students to fend for themselves. The Occupy movement is helping these students worry about one less thing.
The student loan debt initiative is the second one of the Occupy Wall Street Group. The money that is being used is from fundraising that has taken place over the past three years. The first initiative, successfully eliminated over $15 million of emergency room bills.