About

Debt Hits Hard is a national campaign by Campus Progress, the youth organizing division of the Center for American Progress, to raise public awareness of how ineffective federal policies weaken educational opportunity and feed the dramatic growth of student debt.

Through the Debt Hits Hard campaign, Campus Progress advocates cutting student loan interest rates in half, ending wasteful subsidies to lenders that cost taxpayers billions, raising federal Pell Grants to $5100, and launching a public service ad campaign to raise awareness in low-income communities about financial aid resources. Campus Progress is contacting elected officials, candidates for office, college presidents, and other leaders to promote these policy changes.

Since 2000, the average cost of attending a four-year public college has increased over 40 percent. Thirty-nine percent of student loan borrowers graduate with levels of debt that finance experts consider unmanageable. Yet earlier this year, Congress cut $12 billion in student aid (enough to send 230,000 students to college for four years), allowed student loan rates to spike, and refused to raise Pell Grants.

The Debt Hits Hard campaign uses a wide range of innovative tools -- from text messaging to web ads, movie theater spots to campus tabling -- to energize young people seeking a better college financial aid deal from Washington. Anyone can sign up to learn more and make their voices heard at DebtHitsHard.org or by texting the word “DEBT” to phone number 30644.

Central to Campus Progress’s campaign are three new 30-second videos that graphically illustrate how educational debt hits hard -- for a high school student who can’t afford college, a college student already mired in student loan debt, and a young couple who can’t afford to marry.

Launched in February 2005, Campus Progress works to help young people make their voices heard through the CampusProgress.org web magazine, student publications and campaigns, hundreds of speaking events and training programs, and an annual National Student Conference for over 1000 students.

Watch the Videos: YouTube - QuickTime

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Debt Hits Hard in the News:

"Progressive Group Deploys Web Video and Mobile Student Debt Effort," by Kate Kaye, ClickZ News, October 31, 2006

"Debt Hits Hard - What Are Your Opportunities?," Music For America, October 27, 2006

"Spread the Word," by Gary J. Andres, Washington Times, October 26, 2006

"Injecting Policy into Conversations with Millenials," Future Majority, October 25, 2006

"DebtHitsHard.org," The Garnished Life: Thoughts on Student Loan Debt, October 24, 2006

Read our October 23 Press Release