ZDM is excited to bring our policy priorities to you! These five policies are concrete steps that our State Representatives and State Senators can take towards a Zero Debt Future here in Massachusetts.

It takes less than two minutes to fill out your information and send a message directly to your State Senator and Representative. You’ll urge your elected officials to support the ZDM legislative priorities by co-sponsoring our four policies and you can make your message even stronger by adding your personal story or reason for supporting these policies into the body of your email!

Here are our policies:

Debt Free Future Act (H.1339/S.829): Creates a grant program to cover tuition and fees for all MA residents then covers additional costs of attendance (housing, transportation, books, etc.) for low income students to attend any MA public college, university, or certificate, vocational or training program. These funds will NOT affect eligibility for other financial aid.

The CHERISH Act (H.1325/S.824): Returns per-student funding for MA’s public institutions of higher education to FY 2001 levels and freezes tuition and fees for five years. Per-student investment has been plummeting for decades. Students, families and staff deserve full re-investment in public higher education.

The Endowment Tax (H.2931/S.836): Applies a 2.5% annual tax on private college and university endowments greater than $1 billion. Invests this revenue into making public higher education, early education, and child care more accessible and affordable for working class people. Endowments are like savings for colleges and universities, and a modest 2.5% tax will deliver transformative revenue for public services.

Working people should NOT lose their professional licenses as a consequence of defaulting on their student loans. Let’s protect the ability of nurses, barbers, teachers, mechanics and others to continue working by passing this common sense bill.

Ending The Transcript Trap (S.821/H.1347): Over six million students nationwide have been impacted by transcript withholding, an unfair practice universities participate in by denying students access to their own academic transcripts due to unpaid balances to the school - some as small as $25! The legislation would simply ensure access to academic transcripts to protect anyone seeking employment from the arbitrary withholding of their transcripts.

Read more about these policies here!