Million Student MarchStudents in 110 locations, 90 cities and 34 states are taking part in the “Million Student March” today that seeks tuition-free college educations, cancellation of all student debt, and $15 hourly wage for campus employers.

City College of New York students and professors are among the participants in the grass roots effort.

“We expect this to be a long struggle,” said James Hoff, English professor at Borough of Manhattan Communication College, organizer of the CCNY group.

He says that more than 40 million Americans are holding $1.2 trillion in student debt and one in four borrowers has difficulties in paying off the loans.

Keely Mullen, fourth-year student at Northeastern University and an organizer for 15 Now, said she expects to graduate with about $150,000 in debt.

“Our country has abandoned its responsibility to educate future generations,” she told the Michigan Chronicle.

“Today we are dealing with a curriculum that reflects a corporate agenda, outrageous university tuitions and fees, massive student debt, and a K-12 public education system under attack by budget cuts, charter schools, standardized tests, and the school-to-prison pipeline,” she said.

Chomsky, Green Party Support Drive

Allies in the movement include Noam Chomsky, Socialist Alternative, US Uncut, Green Party Presidential candidate Jill Stein, Peoples Power Assemblies-NYC, Student Labor Action Project, 15 Now and other groups.

James Andrews, an organizer, said tuition and fees at CUNY, supposedly with a mission to serve the working classes, have increased 40% since 2010 to $6,330 yearly. At the same time, he said, costs covered by state and federal funding have plummeted since the 1990s.

The crisis stems from “years of government and private sector abuse, cuts to education, Wall Street influence in the form of corporatization of education and militarization among other factors,” he said.

Presidential candidate Senator Bernie Sanders (I-Vt) earlier this year proposed a million-student march on Washington, D.C.

Supporters of the Million Student March say the movement for a $15 minimum wage has resulted in that being enacted in several cities and that program is serving as an example.

Algeminer Protests CUNY Zionist Remarks

Students at City University of New York, the largest urban university system in the U.S., posted on the Facebook notice of MSM that the “Zionist administration invests in Israeli companies that support the Israeli occupation, hosts birthright programs and study abroad programs in occupied Palestine, and reproduces settler-colonial ideology throughout CUNY through Zionist content of education.”

Students for Justice in Palestine at CUNY said it is “fighting for the liberation of all peoples.”

The Algemeiner Jewish medium, published a denunciation of the CUNY posting.

Rabbi Abraham Cooper, associate dean of the Simon Wiesenthal Center, said the students are accusing “Zionists” for their financial plight.

He said: “This memo debunks the myth that there is any difference to bigots between the words and concepts of ‘Israeli,’ ‘Zionist’ or ‘Jew.’ It’s long overdue that the Jewish community demand of church leaders, academics, elected officials, the New York Times and other media to publicly denounce such rhetoric and imagery for what it is: Jew-hatred. Left unchallenged, such hate will poison the attitudes of many of our neighbors towards the world’s largest Jewish community in New York and far beyond. That is the goal of these bigots.”