Sen. Charles Schumer is asking college students to turn up the pressure on Congress to make college more affordable.
The New York lawmaker organized a conference call with college newspaper editors from around the state Thursday to urge them to convince students to email, blog and tweet support for a legislative package called the RED — Reducing Educational Debt — Act.
Schumer says it's the first time he's made such a call and that his Democratic colleagues were holding similar calls with campus reporters in their states, as part of their #InTheRed campaign.
Total student loan debt in the United States is now more than 1 trillion dollars.
The RED Act includes proposals to let students refinance debt at lower interest rates and attend community college tuition-free.
