It's been an unforgettable semester and year.
Thank you for being a part
of it and for making sure students have a voice in America’s future.
Here are some of our biggest victories:
Passing the
largest student financial aid law in history.
In March,
President Obama signed the largest student loan bill in history into
law. The new law increases financial aid for students by $36 billion,
and it won't cost taxpayers a dime because it's funded by cutting
wasteful hand-outs to banks and loan companies like Sallie Mae and
Citibank. Across the country 10,000 of you called,
wrote, emailed, and tweeted your Congressmen asking them to take
action. In addition, our DC staff worked tirelessly to bring your
message to legislators and their staff.
Stopping
the worst unfair practices by credit companies.
In February
the Credit CARD Act went into effect. This law protects students and
ends some of the worst unfair practices of credit card companies, making
it illegal for credit card companies to profit by tricking people into
paying late. It was the outcry of students like you that passed this
law, and the banks aren't happy about it - this is the first time in 40
years any law opposed by credit card companies has passed.
Helping rebuild
Haiti, and fighting poverty here at home.
It's
been a tough year for many American families, and the earthquake in
Haiti has affected millions. Through our annual Hunger Cleanup and Haiti
relief fundraisers, thousands of students across the country volunteered
for a day of service in their communities, planting
gardens, painting, cleaning, serving
food, collecting cans, and more. They also hosted date auctions, spare
change drives, basketball and dodgeball tournaments, hunger
strikes, and other events to raise money to donate to those in
need. Together, we raised $70,000 for local agencies, Oxfam’s Haiti
Relief and national efforts to combat poverty.
Building
support for global warming solutions.
We're calling on the
Senate to build a clean energy economy that will create jobs and enhance
America’s national security while protecting the environment. Across
the country, we mobilized over 45,000 students and community members to contact
their Senators to call for clean, renewable energy and an end to
our dependence on oil and coal. From coast to coast we held events on
campus and off, panel discussions, home weatherizations, video
screenings, and energy saving competitions to educate thousands of
people and resulting in more than 100 news stories about our work.
Reforming
the
health care system in order to make health care affordable.
Despite
hundreds of millions of dollars spent by the insurance industry to stop
reform, health insurance reform became law. Our priority has been to
make health care affordable. This law takes unprecedented steps to lower
costs for families and small businesses, and it prohibits insurers from
using pre-existing conditions, errors on forms, and lifetime or yearly
caps to drop your coverage or price it out of reach. It also helps young
adults – a highly uninsured demographic - by allowing them to stay on
their parents’ coverage until age 26.
