NEWSEDUCATION

You’re not alone. Since 1999, student debt has increased by 511%, eclipsed credit card debt, and will soon exceed $1 Trillion. But intense lobbying has stripped away basic consumer rights and bankruptcy protection for student loans, subjecting borrowers such as Stef Gray to exploding interest rates, questionable fees, delinquencies, and default.

Like so many other recent graduates today, Stef Gray has been unable to find full-time work since graduating and faces a mound of private student loan debt.  But Stef is now changing the game by directly petitioning Sallie Mae to stop charging a fee to delay payment on her loan until she is employed - and thousands of people have joined her petition on Change.org.

You can start a petition to make a change, too. If you, or someone you know, has experienced the unfair practices of the student loan industry, here are some helpful resources to help you fight back:

1.) Get help!  At least one out of five borrowers default on their student loans. Groups such as Student Loan Justice, Forgive Student Loan Debt, and Occupy Student Debt are just a few grassroots organizations mobilizing to shift the balance of power.  You should also visit The Project on Student Debt, FinAid.org,  Demos.org, Student Loan Borrower’s Assistance, and the Office of the Ombudsman.

2.) Keep meticulous records of all communication with your lender. Start with using a call log including the date and time you called, who you spoke with, how long you were on hold, and detailed notes about your conversation. (Stef Gray made a video of her conversation with Sallie Mae.) Keep any documents on file, too.  The more evidence you have to back-up your claims, the easier to prove your case and build support. Be sure to keep copies of your promissory notes, all statements of your accounts, and any other documentation regarding your loans.

3.) Start a petition on Change.org. Below are steps for creating a petition to your student lender:

• Find out who is a decision-maker at the bank, lender, or collection agency. (This person will most likely be the target of the petition.)
• Briefly explain what happened (e.g. Are you being forced to pay extra fees? Were you forced into default? Did they lose your paperwork?).
• Tell the target what you're asking for (e.g. Stop Double-Dipping To Cash In On Unemployed Graduates; Stop abusive collection calls; Apply my payment to my principal first and then my interest). Remember to be specific in your request.
• Launch your petition!
• Spread the word on Twitter, Facebook, and Google +.
• Research local reporters who are writing or reporting on the student debt crisis, higher education, and consumer rights in your area and email or call them about your story.
• Email katie@change.org to let us know that you’ve started a petition.

4.) Connect with local groups to build your campaign. Many organizations are working on cases like yours. Look for groups like Maryland Consumer Rights Coalition (state-based group) and U.S. PIRG (national network of groups) to help you with arranging a meeting with an elected official, pitching your story to the media, and advocating for state legislation to help student borrowers fight back.

Remember, you're not alone. By taking a stand, you're helping shine a light on the unfair practices of big banks and student lenders everywhere.

Now, go start your petition!

[Editor's Note: Guest blogger Kit-Bacon Gressitt and her group created the Change.org petition "Act Against Hate at Cal State University San Marcos." You can find more of her writing at http://www.excusemeimwriting.com/]

Imagine opening what appears to be a college newspaper and finding a picture of yourself superimposed into a pornographic photo, with a description of sexual acts. Imagine how that would make you feel as you walk through campus, not knowing who was behind the anonymous tabloid, uncertain if the person looking at you across the classroom was the one who photoshopped your face into a scene of naked women.

This is what one student at Cal State University San Marcos is going through, and she is suffering this abuse due to two things:

Right now, schools across the country are facing budget shortfalls caused by the foreclosure crisis.  As kids and families lose their homes and move away, schools lose their students and the funding goes with them.

Is the foreclosure crisis having an impact on your school district?  It’s easy to do something about it by asking your school district to take its money out of Wall Street banks that led to the foreclosure crisis and into a community bank that invests in the local community.

1. Call your School District accounting office to ask them what bank they use and who has the power to change banks.

Google search for “School District, your City/County/Town Name and Accounting” to find the phone number. If there isn't a number for accounting specifically, just call the general number and ask for the accounting office or in some cases the treasurer. When you call, be nice.  Accountants don’t usually hear from the public.

What to say when you call:
Hi, this might seem like a strange question, but I am wondering what bank the school district uses?
If they ask, tell them why you’re calling: I just read about a school district that might move its money to a community bank, and I wondered if my school district uses a community bank.
Thank them for that information, then ask them: If the school district wanted to change banks, who would make that decision?

2. Start a petition at Change.org

Chose your target. It should be the individual or group who can make this decision, as identified in your call. Or, when in doubt, target the school board. Most school boards are responsible for the financial health of a school district, so they should be able to make recommendations on the district's banking.

Tell the decisionmaker what you’re asking them to do (for example: "Move Ridgewood School District’s accounts to a community bank.")

Briefly explain why this issue is important to you -- did your school close after the foreclosure crisis, or have you seen the negative impact that the foreclosure crisis has had on your schools?  Include that information. (For example: "Big banks like Wells Fargo are responsible for the foreclosure crisis that has hurt our schools. My child's school closed because so many kids moved away after their homes were foreclosed. The school district should move its accounts to a responsible community bank.")

3. Build your campaign.  Email the petition to your friends, classmates, neighbors, and family to spread the word, and post it on your Facebook page. And, contact katie@change.org to let her know that you've started your petition and want help promoting it to the larger Change.org community.

4. Connect with local groups. You might also connect with organizations working on this issue.  Look for groups like the organization that started the first one of these campaigns, Minnesota Neighborhoods Organizing for Change and New Bottom Line, which is supporting individuals all over the country who want to change banks.

Bullying and harassment at school is a serious threat that directly affects the health and well being of youth across the country.

Eye care company 1800AnyLens.Com had been using the fear of bullying  in a recent back-to-school marketing campaign that targeted parents and caregivers to purchase their product.

A marketing email from 1800AnyLens.Com, intended to garner media coverage, implied that buying contact lenses from their company would solve the complicated - and sometimes fatal - problem of school bullying

But after more than 350 advocates for safe schools joined an online campaign on Change.org led by safe schools advocate Shannon Cuttle, telling the company that exploiting parents' and students' fears of bullying was unacceptable, 1800AnyLens.Com has apologized and pledged not to use bullying in marketing pitches in the future. Read the original marketing email and their apology below:

Victory! Gov. John Kasich today reduced the charges against Kelley Williams-Bolar, a single African-American mother jailed and convicted of a felony earlier this year for enrolling her children in a school district in which she did not live.

The news comes after more than 184,000 Change.org members emailed Kasich’s office in support of Williams-Bolar since January of this year, when her conviction sparked a viral campaign on Change.org created by Massachusetts resident Caitlin Lord (read Lord's account of why she started the petition).

Alongside African-American citizen coalition ColorOfChange.org, Change.org members from around the country called Kasich’s office on Tuesday, September 6, urging him to pardon Williams-Bolar. Ohio’s Parole Board had recommended that Williams-Bolar not receive a reduction in sentencing.

This guest post comes from Darell Hammond, CEO of KaBOOM!, a national nonprofit dedicated to saving play for America's children.

This week, our Congress will be returning from their August recess--a yearly tradition that recognizes the human need to take a break from a grueling schedule and spend some time playing.

At the same time, as children across the country return to school, some will find that they have no recess at all. Others will find that their combined recess and lunch period is so short, they have to choose between food and play.

Play is under attack in our nation's schools--and shrinking recess periods are only part of the problem. Homework is increasing. Cities are building new schools without playgrounds. Safety concerns are prompting bans of tag, soccer, and even running on the schoolyard.

Despite countless studies proving that play is integral to children's learning and health, most kids aren't getting enough space and time to play during the school day. These seven absurd stories from last school year say it all:

Earlier this year, Kelley Williams-Bolar spent 9 days in jail because she sent her kids to a safer school district. Now, her future is in the hands of Ohio Governor John Kasich.

More than 180,000 Change.org members have signed a petition asking Governor Kasich to pardon Kelley, who chose to send her kids to a safer school in her father's neighboring district, instead of the neighborhood where she lived. Governor Kasich responded positively to the petition and international media coverage around the story, asking the Ohio Parole Board to hear Kelley's case.

But inexplicably, last Friday afternoon, the Parole Board recommended against pardoning Kelley. But it's not too late, because Governor Kasich can make his own decision to issue a full pardon.

Can you please take one minute today, Tuesday, September 6, to call Gov. John Kasich's office and ask that he issue a full pardon of Kelley Williams-Bolar?

In response to pressure from parents, educators and grassroots advocates, Scholastic Inc. will drastically limit its practice of partnering with corporations to produce classroom material, the company announced last week.

The publisher had been under fire since May, when it was forced to stop distributing a fourth-grade curriculum called “The United States of Energy” that had been paid for by the coal industry and distributed to classrooms across the country. Boston nonprofit Campaign for a Commercial-Free Childhood had called on Scholastic to drop the curriculum, and after achieving success, expanded its campaign -- in concert with online social action platform Change.org -- to lobby for sweeping reforms to Scholastic’s controversial “InSchool Marketing” division.

Teen mothers are expected to fail. Just ask Bee Lavender, who, after she became pregnant at 18, remembers a swift and merciless change in the way most people treated her:

"It was a profound shock to go from being the good kid, the honours student, the girl who talked about youth leadership on television, to being perceived as human detritus," Lavender wrote in The Guardian.

Lavender dropped out of college and moved back home. But you wouldn't know it today if you met her. An acclaimed writer and activist, her books include a memoir about danger titled Lessons in Taxidermy and the anthologies Breeder and Mamaphonic. She's the publisher of the website Hipmama.com and is the founder of Girl-Mom.com, an advocacy project for teen parents. She's also taking a stand today for another teenage mother, Kymberly Wimberley of McGehee, Arkansas.

The country's leading safe schools organization on Friday criticized a "neutrality" policy at Minnesota's largest school district that prevents faculty from addressing LGBT issues with students.

Policies like the "neutrality" policy at the Anoka-Hennepin School District "have a chilling effect on LGBT students," said Dr. Eliza Byard, Executive Director of the Gay, Lesbian & Straight Education Network in an interview with Change.org.

"Research has shown that teachers in states that have anti-LGBT policies are less likely to respond to the harassment of LGBT students, and students are more likely to report hearing negative remarks," Byard said.

Controversy over the Minnesota district's rule instructing teachers and staff to take a "neutral" stance on matters of sexuality came to a head last week, when a federal lawsuit was filed by the Southern Poverty Law Center, the National Center for Lesbian Rights and Faegre & Benson, LLP.