Million Student March is a student protest movement in the United States of America involving students from campuses across the country marching in protest against high tuition fees and student debt. The movement uses the hashtag "#MillionStudentMarch". The first march was organised on 12 November 2015 at 115 locations across the United States. The second march was held on 13 April 2016.
Video Million Student March
Origin
The reasons for massive student unrest in the United States is the high rate of tuition and massive debt burden on students. The following facts on student debt are pertinent:
- average college debt for a student from the Class of 2015 is $35,000.
- the total amount in student academic debt in the United States is $1.2 trillion which is owed by 40 million Americans.
- 58 percent of the student debt is owed by the most economically challenged quartile of American students.
The concept for the Million Student March is attributed to Senator Bernie Sanders who said :
Maps Million Student March
Demands
The Million Student March aims to fight to achieve the following:
- tuition-free college education.
- cancellation of student debt.
- a minimum $15 per hour wage for campus workers.
- that all university endowments divest from private prisons.
March of 12 November 2015
The first Million Student March was organised and held on 12 November 2015 at over a hundred campuses in the United States. Hundreds of students gathered in a number of colleges and demonstrated for free tuition, cancellation of student debt and other issues. Campuses where demonstrations took place included University of California, Santa Barbara campus, Temple University in Philadelphia, University of Texas at Austin, University of Massachusetts Amherst, City College of New York in Manhattan and Northeastern University in Boston, besides many others.
March of 13 April 2016
The second Million Student March was organised and held on 13 April 2016 at a number of campuses in the United States.
Response
The Million Student March has been endorsed by Bernard Sanders, Jill Stein, Thom Hartmann and Noam Chomsky.
References
External links
- The #MillionStudentMarch website.
Source of the article : Wikipedia