WADE RATHKE is the founder of ACORN, Chief Organizer at ACORN International, and Author of "Nuts & Bolts", "Citizen Wealth", "Global Grassroots", and "The Battle for the 9th Ward".
New Orleans It’s one thing to feel powerless in the face of government like the Chinese ophthalmologist who died of the coronavirus after being reprimanded for warning colleagues in his hospital. Poignantly, he said, “every country needs more than one voice.” This is why we build organizations to confront power and create change. What …
Gulfport Berea College is as close as something comes to a one-of-a-kind, single institution, social change education experiment. Founded 162 years ago by abolitionists in Kentucky to educate freed slaves and lower income white students, to this day the college only admits lower income students. The Times reports that 98% of its classes use federal …
New Orleans Millions owe billions in student loans and in some cases it’s a just-past-the-cradle to the grave debt that just lingers on. In a good move and through a bipartisan vote under the George W. Bush Administration in 2007, Congress approved a bill that under certain conditions would allow an individual forgiveness of student …
New Orleans In the last couple of days I’ve read various campaign pronouncements on capping the cost of childcare and capping student loan payments. Hey, tell me we can’t all get behind something like that. But, I was struck by the fact that the ceiling on both of these onerous burdens for millions of working …
New Orleans I just have to wonder why when we are in a period of historic wealth and income concentration at the top, there are so many outfits trying to rip off low-and-moderate income families at the bottom? The hustles keep rolling down on our people like an avalanche. The Student Debt Project issued a …