Rebuild the Dream petition: Denounce Virginia Foxx's remarks about college students
I just got this email from Rebuild the Dream linking to a petition asking the Speaker of the House to denounce Rep. Virginia Foxx (R-NC) for her comment that she has "very little tolerance for people who tell me that they graduate with $200,000 of debt or even $80,000 of debt, because there's no reason for that", further saying: "I went through school, I worked my way through, it took me seven years, I never borrowed a dime of money." RTD responds: "This was in 1968 at UNC Chapel Hill, when seven years of college cost about $46,100 TOTAL (adjusted for inflation). How much would her education cost now? $141,820. An in-state student at UNC Chapel Hill now pays triple what it cost when Foxx went to school. And, by the way, the minimum wage was 38% higher in 1968 than it is now, in inflation-adjusted dollars."
In addition to the standard letterhead "Speaker Boehner and Congress: We call on you to publicly denounce the insulting statement made recently by Representative Virginia Foxx, Chair of the Subcommittee on Higher Education & Workforce Training, when she dismissed and belittled people with student debt. Student loan debt is an urgent issue that affects tens of millions of Americans and must be treated with seriousness and compassion." I added:
"Foxx again confirms why most Americans, whether Democrat, independent, Republican, or other, have such a low opinion of Congress and think that our politicians are out of touch. I challenge Foxx to earn enough to pay for a year of college and living expenses strictly thru minimum wage jobs, no welfare or any other donations. Maybe when she was in college it was possible to work her way thru college, but not in this era of stagnated wages for the middle class and non-stop corporate profit."
