A coalition of students will march to several banks and the N.C. Legislature in Raleigh today to demand a student bailout.

Students from N.C. State, UNC-Chapel Hill, UNC-Greensboro, UNC-Charlotte, Hampton University and high school students from across the state are taking part in a worldwide movement aimed to freeze tuition, cancel all student debt, create job programs with living wage and fund human needs, according to Ryan Thomson, a junior in political science.

Thomson, also the lead delegate of Students for Social Progress, said its objective is to fight.

“The recession is starting to hurt everybody and we see that,” he said. “We are expecting fee and tuition increases despite budget cuts. The quality of education is going down with larger class sizes and less classes.”

Thomson said opportunities are slipping away from students and the goal of the movement is to counterbalance the effect of lower income and the higher price of education.

Maddie Miller, a senior at Durham Academy and member of the UNC-Chapel Hill Students for a Democratic Society, said it organized this as a call to action.

“May 1 is the traditional day to protest worker’s rights, so we’re basically calling a demonstration tomorrow to prepare for May 1,” she said. “The people that are becoming most paralyzed by the economic crisis are students, the working class and elderly.”

She said her goal is to be as vocally and visually present as possible to help form the student bailout.

“The goal is to get people involved in the movement,” she said. “It’s something which is just as important as the Civil Rights Movement.”

Protestors are marching to the Bank of America and Wachovia because they have been recipients of billions of dollars of federal bailout money and are the two biggest holders of student loan debt, according to Thomson.

He said as the banks get bailed, education is becoming less affordable and students are falling deeper into debt. As the march continues, they will pay a visit to the legislature to demand a real jobs program that can provide work for young people, no education cuts and no tuition hikes, he said.

“Since the banks got the bailout, they need to pass money back to the students,” Thomson said. “That’s the big objective.”

Chloe Rey, a junior in biochemistry, said the banks need to give back to the schools because students are the people who matter most.

“We are the future of this country and they [banks] are holding us back,” she said.

Miller said universities are just as guilty as the banks and corporations.

“The chancellor at UNC-Chapel Hill is making almost half a million a year and people are out here losing jobs,” she said. “The motto of a university is supposed to be to strive for the betterment of society. Workers’ livelihoods are being neglected and the salaries of the chancellor are being put before peoples’ lives and students’ ability to pay tuition.”

Thomson agreed and said these problems are only the beginning.

“I find it ironic that Chancellor Oblinger still makes a salary of $420,000, roughly the equivalent of 20 dorm housekeeper’s jobs,” Thomson said.

Despite their efforts and reasoning, Miller said because it’s so early in the process, the banks and legislation probably won’t change their policies right away and all of a sudden become more democratic.

“This is more about getting people involved, those who have lost homes, lost jobs or are even afraid of losing jobs, loans or homes,” she said. “We want to get them involved so it will become something so big that the legislation and President will put people’s livelihood before greed and profit.”

Rey said she is unsure how the banks and legislature will respond to the protests.

“I don’t think they are going to change their minds because of a protest,” she said. “But it will open their eyes and show them that a lot of people are concerned about the current situation.”

To commemorate the forty-first year since Martin Luther King Jr. spoke regarding working for meager wages, students and workers plan to demand that people’s needs are met.

“Students, young people and workers need a fight back movement that struggles for the rights of all people to jobs, education, health care, and other necessities,” Trameka Lancaster, a leader of Black Workers for Justice Youth, said. “Washington and Wall Street created this crisis, but only a fighting people’s movement can bring us out of it.”