Elevate the Voices of Black Borrowers – Jim Crow Debt: How Black Borrowers Experience Student Loans
by Victoria Jackson Assistant Director of Higher Education Policy The Education Trust 01/21/2022Ed Trust recently released Jim Crow Debt: How Black Borrowers Experience Student Loans in partnership with Dr. Jalil Mustaffa Bishop. Data on the student debt crisis often overlooks the perspectives and lived experiences of Black borrowers, who are most negatively affected by student loans. So, we surveyed nearly 1,300 Black borrowers and conducted in-depth interviews to understand how Black borrowers experience student debt.
Many respondents noted the ways in which student loans reproduce and heighten inequality: “I understand, this is about financing an education. But there’s a lot that compounds with Black people. So, for me, it was the health incident. It was the job insecurity. It was dealing with police. And then, I’m still not paying on my own student loans,” said Xavier, a respondent who borrowed $40,000. The current student debt cancellation debate ignores stories like Xavier’s, which highlights how student loans perpetuate and are perpetuated by structural racism.
The Black student loan crisis has moved from the margins to the national policy debate stage but highlighting data on Black student debt outcomes is not the same as centering Black people’s views and experiences when discussing the debt crisis and designing solutions to it. Many Black borrowers view student loan policy as a matter of racial justice and full cancellation as the best solution, as well as an important step toward levelling the playing field and reducing the racial wealth gap. Black borrowers understand the sources and scope of this crisis in a way that those who didn’t struggle to pay for college do not. Policymakers just need to listen to them.
We will be continuing this crucial work in 2022 by taking a deeper look at how the student debt crisis affects Black women, conducting an examination of Parent PLUS loans, and centering mental health in conversations about Black student debt. The stories that Black borrowers share, as well as the solutions they raise, shine a light on the full weight of student debt while also offering a way forward. In solidarity with the Black borrowers from this study, The Education Trust supports canceling at least $50,000 in federal student loans, doubling the Pell Grant, and creating a federal-state partnerships to make public two- and four-year colleges debt-free. We hope that you will support this deeply important work with a $20.00 contribution to Ed Trust today .
