PHOENIX – We at Brophy College Preparatory are proud to have spent the past two weeks exploring the impact of debt on the dignity of people and communities through the keynotes, workshops, prayer service, and other events of our annual Summit on Human Dignity. Halfway through our two-week Summit, we were especially thrilled to learn of Gov. Hobbs’ partnership with RIP Medical Debt to use $30 million of COVID-19 relief funds to forgive $2 billion of medical debt for 1 million Arizonans.
One reason that the Brophy community was excited to hear of the governor’s plan was because, exactly one week earlier, Brophy unveiled its own debt forgiveness initiative for people across Maricopa County and surrounding areas in partnership with ForgiveCo. At our Summit’s opening keynote address, Craig Antico — the co-founder of RIP Medical Debt and the co-founder and CEO of ForgiveCo — announced that ForgiveCo was working with Brophy to raise enough money to forgive at least $1 million of debts of necessity for lower-income individuals and families concentrated around the Maricopa County area. While our school does not have the same funding levels as the state of Arizona, this amount of debt forgiveness by a single school represents a substantial commitment to the dignity, wellbeing and financial security of those members of our local society most marginalized by debt, which tends to accumulate and hold back people disproportionately along socioeconomic and racial lines.
Brophy’s debt forgiveness initiative — known as the Bronco Jubilee in honor of the biblical year of Jubilee in which God called upon the ancient Hebrews to cancel all debts every 50 years — is a part both of our annual Summit on Human Dignity (this year focused on debt as our theme) and our annual Lenten Drive, through which students participate in almsgiving by donating money in their classrooms or online. With the generosity of our students, parents, educators and staff, paired with that of Mr. Antico, we are proud to announce that we will be able to forgive at least $1 million of debt for low-income people in our region, and we will continue to drive up our total as we collect donations from our school community until Easter.
We are glad the governor has joined us in our efforts to erase debt as a factor holding back those whose circumstances have too often left them stuck in financial distress. We pray that our efforts, combined with those of the state of Arizona, can contribute to a city, county, and state committed to the dignity and wellbeing of all its members.
About Brophy College Preparatory
Brophy College Preparatory is a Jesuit, Catholic school for young men established in 1928 that seeks to instill competence, conscience, and compassion and to educate Men for Others to Serve the World.
