$172,256.66. That is the principal balance on my Student Loan Debt statement issued this year—something I am not exceptionally proud of, but I felt it was important to share with those who may not realize what they are getting into by borrowing.

Going back the past few decades, the lowest payment you could make straight out of school in order to stay in good standing was $1,000 monthly. Any less went directly to interest. Most students out on their own after graduation are lucky to pay their rent. In my case, for the first few years I spent as an entrepreneur, the money just wasn't there. And once you fall behind, the rate of interest simply overtakes you. Even with double payments, without a sizable contribution to get "even," you'll never catch up.

After loan consolidation, it only gets worse. In November 2011, like many Americans I was forced to declare bankruptcy. As a husband and father of two young children I instantly became entangled in the fight for tomorrow. A gambler can dismiss his debts instantly; however, a student loan debt never goes away. Bankruptcy does not solve the problem and in some cases it is passes directly on to your children.

Occupygraduation.net invites students to highlight their debt by taping their loan amounts to their cap and gown, or by wearing a plastic ball and chain to illustrate the financial hardship higher education has currently brought to bear on their lives. Discussion and new legislation is vital. In this country, student debt has now crossed the $1 trillion mark. Yes: that is $1,000,000,000,000 dollars, and it does not even factor the costs of those currently enrolled. It's a grim milestone.

At the very least, students should be able to borrow zero interest loans in order to avoid shackling their futures to the prospect of economic hardship. In my case, I made roughly $20,000 in sporadic payments for a $34,000 principal over the last 20 years, all of which was seemingly paid directly to interest. It's the weight that I will carry to the end of my days.

This spring, as prefaced by the above anonymous letter, Occupy Wall Street, along with Occupy Student Debt, Rebuild the Dream, Ben Cohen (of Ben & Jerry's), Backbone Campaign, Occupy Colleges, Default: The Student Loan Documentary, Occupy Together, Doo-Occupy, EDU Debtors Union, Forgive Student Loan Debt and college and university campuses across the country, have banded together to Occupy Graduation.

In April, when America's student loan debt surpassed the one trillion dollar mark, throughout the country graduating seniors pledged to use their commencement ceremony to address this debt jubilee. Tens of thousands of students across the nation have pledged their support by white-taping the actual dollar sign of their incurred debt to caps and gowns, or by wearing symbolic ball and chains on their ankles in silent protest. On occupygraduation.net you can buy a 10-pack of inflatable balls and chains, which easily fold into your pocket. Or you can craft your own creative commencement. No matter how you walk the aisle, make sure you do it in style. It may very well be the last time that you are truly debt free.

The following colleges and universities have pledged participation in the action:

• Amherst College
• Adrian College Michigan
• Bard College
• Barnard College
• Boston College
• Bucknell University
• Colby
• Connecticut College
• CU Boulder
• Duke University
• George Washington
• Grinnell College
• Hampshire
• High Point NC AT&T University
• Lafayette College
• Loyola University Maryland
• Oberlin College
• MIT
• Northeastern University
• Pomona
• Princeton
• Rice University
• Smith College
• Stanford University
• Syracuse University
• Tulane University
• UMASS
• Union College KY
• University of Massachusetts
• University of Michigan
• University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill
• UVa
• Vanderbilt
• Virginia Tech
• Wesleyan
• W&M
• AND MANY MORE! 

Occupy Graduation demands the following:

Tuition-Free Public Higher Education

The single largest step we can take to alleviate future student loan debt would be to guarantee tuition-free education for students enrolled at public colleges and universities. In the case of systems in California and New York that were formerly free, this would be a restoration of the status quo. For others, it would be a restoration of the spirit of the GI Bill, which provided a free college education to tens of millions and established U.S. higher education as a democratic gold standard worldwide. According to a recent estimate, drawn from Department of Education data, the cost of covering tuition at all the nation’s two- and four-year colleges and universities would be about $70 billion. Put that in perspective with the federal budget, where a recent audit found that the Pentagon “wastes” this sum in unaccountable spending every year. Merely ending the Bush tax cuts ($80 billion annually) would easily cover the cost.

Zero-Interest Student Loans

Student loans are not consumer loans, and they should not be packaged as if they were consumer credit debt. At a time when a university degree is considered a prerequisite for employment in the knowledge economy, debt, for most students, is a precondition for entry into the workforce. They cannot work unless they have gone into debt—a condition akin to indenture. This arrangement does not correspond in any meaningful way to a consumer choice. Zero-interest student loans are the only justifiable kind of lending under these circumstances. The current scenario, in which government agencies, banks and other private lenders set extortionate rates and extract lavish profits is corrupt and abhorrent.

Private Colleges Must Open Their Books

Students at private and for-profit universities and colleges have a fundamental right to know how their tuition dollars are being allocated and spent. These institutions are fiscally dependent on student loan debt, they enjoy a tax-free status and are beneficiaries of federal largesse in all sorts of ways. Withholding information about the conduct of their fiscal affairs is a violation of the ethos of shared governance and transparency that liberal institutions like universities should be promoting, and practicing.

Write Off Student Debt In The Spirit of Jubilee

The student loan industry has profited from borrower vulnerability through predatory lending practices such as compounding interest rates, high collection fees, and few consumer protections. The morality of perpetuating this unjust system by continuing to pay these predatory loans is questionable. In times of fuller employment, the student loan debt system has yielded no end of private suffering and humiliation for at least two generations of debtors. In a time of chronic underemployment—and the worst may be yet to come—the burden is beyond tolerance. Immediate forgiveness in the spirit of a jubilee, where the injustice of an unpayable debt is redeemed through a single, corrective act, is the only just response to this crisis.