Student Loan Debt for Black Americans

Canceling Student Loan Debt for Black Students

Student loan debt problem is one of the major social issues in the United States education sector. This problem is fueled by various factors, particularly the fact that tuition fee is outpacing the ability of students to pay. In addition, the percentage of students taking out loans to finance their education continues to increase rapidly. Therefore, policymakers and stakeholders within the education sector are looking for solutions to address the student debt crisis. Many researchers and experts contend that canceling these debts is a suitable solution to addressing the crisis. However, Black students are seemingly disadvantaged in efforts to cancel student loan debt largely because of past discrimination. This paper explores canceling student loan debt for Black students as one of the ways to promote social justice in higher education.

Social Justice in Higher Education

The field of education has experienced tremendous changes in the recent past due to various factors including technological advancements and globalization. The adoption of technology into education has generated new educational practices. According to Strait & Nordyke (2015), online learning and service-learning are some of the fast-growing educational practices that have emerged in recent decades. While contemporary educational practices continue to attract the attention of learners and educators, promoting social justice in higher education remains a major issue. Students are faced with different contemporary problems that contribute to social justice issues in education. Social justice in education basically refers to creating educational environments that support all students equitably regardless of their gender, ethnicity, race, religion, and learning capabilities. In essence, social justice in education implies that all students have equal rights and opportunities regardless of their individual differences and uniqueness (Hlalele, 2016).

Social justice issues are evident in different areas including university/college access programs and access to funding. Learning institutions are increasingly concerned with social justice problems because of their impact on students’ overall learning experiences and outcomes. As a result, higher education institutions like DePaul University are committed to promoting social justice in their learning environments. Social justice is aligned with the mission of DePaul University as reflected in its commitment to uphold the dignity of all its members. This learning institution recognizes the diversity of all its members and remains committed to creating an inclusive community. By remaining committed to creating an inclusive community, the university seeks to ensure that all its members including students have equal rights and opportunities. Moreover, the institution’s promotion of social justice is reflected in its commitment to providing equitable solutions to social and environmental challenges.

Student Loan Debt Crisis

Student loan debt crisis is one of the major social justice issues facing higher education institutions in the United States. At the heart of this problem is the unfair distribution of resources and inequitable treatment of students. According to Looney & Yannelis (2015), the total outstanding federal student debt quadrupled between 2000 and 2014 to exceed $1.1 trillion. During the same period, the number of student loan borrowers was 42 million, which was more than double. The default rates also increased to reach the highest levels in two decades during this period. As a result, the increase in student loan debt and default rates have become widespread and attracted concern within and outside the educational sector. Policymakers and other stakeholders have become increasingly concerned about the widespread impact of student loan debt on the lives of young Americans. Given the increase in student loan debt, the number of borrowers, and default rates, there is a crisis in student loan debt.

However, the high default rates are expected to decrease in the near future because of various factors including increased scrutiny, a reduction in the number of non-conventional borrowers, and policing of for-profit institutions (Looney & Yannelis, 2015). It is expected that many borrowers facing economic hardships will avoid default in the near future because of increased enrollment in income-based repayment programs. This implies that favorable economic conditions are expected to help address the student loan debt crisis by contributing to the decline in the rates of default.

Despite these expectations, recent trends and statistics show that student loan debt remains a major social justice issue in higher education in the U.S. Ulbrich & Kirk (2017) noted that this debt surpassed $1.3 trillion in 2017 and continues to rise by the minute. Tuition increases and students’ limited ability to pay have played a major role in this crisis. The high levels of student indebtedness continue to have significant impact on their lives. The rising student debt affects students’ career choice and results in diminished quality of life. Additionally, students are forced to contend with delayed progress in achieving their personal financial goals and are unable to give back to their society.

Student Loan Debt Among Black Students

Student loan debt crisis affects all students regardless of their race, ethnicity, gender identity, and sexual orientation. However, some groups of students are disproportionately affected by this problem compared to others. Black students are among student groups who are disproportionately affected by the student loan debt crisis compared to other groups, particularly whites. Geiman & Taylor (2022) note that the student loan debt crisis is particularly dreadful for Black students compared to their white counterparts. Recent trends indicate that Black degree-seekers are more likely to take out loans to cater to the costs of their higher education than white students. As a result, Black students account for the largest average student loan debt of racial groups in the U.S.

Black students are increasingly likely to enroll in underfunded or lower-performing higher learning institutions. In addition, these students are more likely to be targeted by for-profit higher educational institutions (Kuhn, Ellis & Grabenstein, 2022). Since these institutions are more expensive and have the lowest rates of graduation, many Black students are forced to take out loans to pay for their higher education. Black students are unable to avoid student loan debt because of factors in the labor market. Many college-educated Black workers are faced with workforce inequities that contribute to higher rates of underemployment and unemployment as well as lower earnings compared to their white peers. The high rates of unemployment and underemployment make it difficult for Black students to avoid student loan debt to finance their higher education.

The worsening student loan debt crisis among Black students can be traced back to social justice issues embedded in American society. One of these social justice issues that have contributed to this problem is systemic racism. Systemic racism has contributed to wealth disparities and inequities that continue to affect millions of Americans. In early American society, Black families were kept out of home-owning and forced to live in segregated towns and neighborhoods. As part of the segregation, college education in the U.S. was restricted and segregated at a time when higher education was somewhat cheap (Jung, 2022). Systemic racism is rooted in slavery, which was characterized by the exploitation and discrimination of African Americans. The discrimination and exploitation left many Black Americans poorer compared to white Americans. While numerous efforts have been made in recent decades to deal with racism, many Black Americans continue to suffer because of institutionalized racism. Even though slavery was abolished more than 150 years ago, Black Americans are still disadvantaged. The challenges facing Black Americans because of systemic racism are evident in different areas including in federal housing and social policies.

Efforts adopted to help enhance the plight of Black Americans following the effects of slavery such as 40 acres and a mule did not fully address racial oppression. This implies that the path to restorative justice for Black Americans has been characterized by challenges and failed to yield the desired results. Consequently, the effects of slavery are still evident today in the form of systemic or institutionalized racism.

Labor market factors have also worsened this crisis as many Black workers do not have similar opportunities and privileges as their white counterparts. As previously indicated, many Black workers are underemployed and unemployed. This has affected their ability to generate wealth, which has widened the racial wealth gap. Together with systemic racism, labor market factors have contributed to economic inequality, particularly the racial wealth gap. Currently, the 400 richest billionaires in the U.S. have more total wealth than all 10 million African American households (Williamson, 2020). While the 400 wealthiest billionaires have 3.5% of all American household wealth, Black households have approximately 3% of all American household wealth.

Facing the Student Loan Debt Crisis

Perry, Steinbaum & Romer (2021) note that there is a student loan debt crisis in the U.S. whose resolution involves forgiving some debt. Canceling student loan debt is viewed by many analysts, experts, and conservative scholars as one of the major ways to resolve the crisis. Stakeholders within and outside the education sector argue that canceling student loan debt would help deal with this problem and address its impacts on individual students as well as society at large.

While the cancellation of student loan debt is viewed as a crucial measure for dealing with this problem, some people argue that such an action would be regressive. The most common argument against canceling student loan debt is the view that it would be regressive. Opponents against the cancellation of student loan debt contend that student debtors have college education, which makes them better off than those who didn’t go to college. Moreover, they contend that recent trends have shown that higher-balance debtors tend to have higher incomes (Perry, Steinbaum & Romer, 2021). This view is based on comparisons between student debtors.

However, these claims are not supported by empirical evidence and are not factual. Having student loan debt does not necessarily imply that an individual went to college or even graduated. Despite the belief that student loans contribute to one’s education, it does not imply that he/she graduated. In addition, having student loan debt is currently viewed as a sign of relative disadvantage as it implies that the student’s family could not afford his/her tuition. Therefore, opposition to canceling student loan debt does not provide a means to promote social justice in relation to financing higher education.

As evident in the findings of recent studies and publications, canceling student loan debt offers a mechanism for dealing with the problem and achieving social justice in this area. The reality is that many student debtors will never pay back the loans because of various factors including issues in the labor market and challenges in wealth generation. Repayment has become more difficult for student borrowers because of the increase in student loan balances and diversification of the set of borrowers. Efforts to reduce required payments to a certain portion of disposable income have proven futile in addressing the crisis as they simply convert the issue into a long-term non-repayment problem.

For Black students, canceling student loan debt represent a suitable way of bridging the wealth gap and achieving social justice in higher education. Canceling student loan debt would help ensure fairness and create a balance in the distribution of educational resources. By canceling student loan debt for Black students, higher education would serve as a great equalizer for populations with lower income and wealth such as African Americans. Through this, higher education would help lessen the existing inequities in American society, especially in relation to race. Geiman & Taylor (2022) state that the lack of broad-based cancellation of student loan debt would make the U.S. higher education system to continue preventing rather than supporting the economic mobility of Black Americans.

Cancelling all student loan debt for Black students would help achieve some form of reparation. As previously discussed, some of the efforts adopted during the end of slavery such as 40 acres and a mule sought to achieve some form of reparations for Black Americans. However, this proved futile as systemic racism is still evident centuries later. The cancellation of student loan debt for Black students would mark a significant step in providing some form of reparation for African Americans. It would play a significant role in addressing systemic racism and wealth inequality in American society. This implies that the cancellation of student debt for this population would promote social justice among Black students who have been disproportionately harmed by the failures of higher education policy.

Black students would significantly benefit from the cancellation of student debt because it would help promote racial justice. Efforts to cancel these debts would represent the focus of policymakers to make racial equity, economic mobility, and income-based gaps in higher education outcomes a top priority. This implies that social justice in higher education would be relatively impossible to achieve without canceling student loan debt for Black students. Currently, the huge student loan debts that disproportionately affect Black students and other lower-income groups exacerbate the deep racial disparities in investment in higher education (The Education Trust, 2021). Student loan debts not only contribute to significant wealth gaps but also deepen racial disparities in higher education. Therefore, cancellation of these debts would lessen racial disparities in investment in higher education and promote equity-driven investments in higher education. Such investments would prioritize Black students and other students from low-income backgrounds.