Image: by Jewel Caruso Denisa Gándara (PhD 2016) released her first op-ed in Newsweek amid the large student loan forgiveness debate. "Now Let's Make College Free" addresses President Biden's recent announcement of the largest student loan forgiveness deal in United States history. Gándara specifically tells us how this step is so important: "Student-loan forgiveness is an important first step in addressing societal inequities caused in part by structural barriers to wealth-accumulation, labor-market discriminations, and the predatory practices of many private, for-profit colleges." Gándara goes on to say that we need to "reinvest in higher education" and make college free completely. She lays out the steps we should take to get to the point of all college being free and how she believes it would "pay for itself" in the end. Gándara is currently an assistant professor at the University of Texas at Austin in the Department of Educational Leadership and Policy. To read the full op-ed by Gándara, visit here. Type of News/Audience: Alumni