Today's guest hosts are Brent J. Cohen and Charlotte Hancock, Executive Director and Communications Director for Generation Progress.

During this episode, they’re going to be examining yet another example of how COVID-19 has exacerbated an existing issue in this country—in this case, the student debt crisis. Generation Progress has been doing advocacy work in the student debt space for much of their existence, and it’s an issue that they feel very strongly about. The collective student loan debt owed by Americans today totals over 1.5 *trillion* dollars, and around one-third of people under the age of 35 currently have a student loan. The cost of attending college has risen dramatically in recent decades, but these advanced degrees are still considered a prerequisite for most middle-class jobs. That precarious situation combined with the rise of predatory, for-profit institutions that exploit students’ desire for higher education have resulted in many students battling climbing debt well into their careers. Now, with many people in this country out of work or losing income as a result of the pandemic, the student debt crisis is positioned to get much worse, especially for people already fighting against gender and racial wealth gaps.

To learn more about what needs to be done now to protect and provide relief to student borrowers—particularly those most impacted by COVID-19—they’re joined by Ashley Harrington, senior policy counsel at the Center for Responsible Lending, and Cody Hounanian, program director at Student Debt Crisis.

Here are the Twitter handles for today's guests and their respective organizations: Ashley Harrington - @achesquire, Center for Responsible Lending - @crlonline, Cody Hounanian - @chounanian, Student Debt Crisis - @DebtCrisisOrg

The website for "Generation Progress" is www.GenProgress.org and their Twitter Handle is @GenProgress.  Brent J. Cohen's Twitter handle is @BrentJCohen and Charlotte Hancock's handle is @CharlatAnne.

(Image Credit: Mountain View Studio)