South Brooklyn pol pens new law to combat student debt
Councilmember and former New Utrecht High School history teacher Mark Treyger hopes his latest legislation, signed into law by Mayor Bill de Blasio on Monday, March 30, will tackle student debt head-on by shaping students to become more financially literate.
The bill, which will now require the city’s Department of Consumer Affairs (DCA) to provide financial outreach and education to young adults, especially those in high school looking towards college, is close to Treyger’s heart.
“As a former teacher, I saw first-hand how students were really being targeted by credit card companies and other financial institutions to take on debt at a very early age, even before they entered college,” said the South Brooklyn rep who, as a teacher, could only provide his students with advice. “We, in the Council, cannot mandate what the Department of Education includes in its curriculum, but what we could do was require an agency like [DCA] to produce financial literacy materials and make them available to schools.”