Life after college being debt free is a dream for every African American college graduate could dream of. Instead, majority of African American graduates across the United States stress about how they’re going to pay back their student loans. They miss important life milestones because of having to owe back money. Awareness has been brought to the attention of students that are not able to pay back their loans by having certain programs to help. President Barack Obama once said in a 2009 national address to students of color, “No matter what you want to do with your life, I guarantee that you’ll need an education to do it.” An African American entering college have been told getting a college degree is to get out of poverty.
Research shows one-third of African American graduate bachelor’s degree accumulate forty thousand or more in debt. According to “Brookings Colleagues,” four years after graduation the average black college graduate owes fifty-two thousand, seven hundred and twenty-six dollars. When only white students owe twenty-eight thousand dollars. People of color are more likely to borrow more than any other race because of their limited resources of their families. Students of color borrow large amounts of money for school, but when they graduate, they are less successful to pay their loans. By having limit resources black household students tend to save their post-college income to help take care of their families, instead of saving to pay back their student loans. Compared to white graduates they have the extended connections to help pay for their student loans. Black women alone that borrow loans owe ten percent more in student debt than black man. Debt levels depend on who has attended for-profit colleges then compared to a non-profit and public school. Peter G. Peterson foundation article says, “Partially due to higher enrollment rates at such schools, black borrowers also have a high default rate, at twenty-nine percent more than double the twelve percent default rate of white bowers.” Once again, the connection the white graduates can ask for their parents to either help on paying their student loan or helping with life milestone. On the other hand, black students coming from low income, they want to help back at home either with having sick parents, younger siblings they look out for and more. There is a big gap of what black students have deal with when it comes to student debt loans compared to a white student.
African American students are more likely to have long-term stress caused by student loans. The anxiety of knowing they’re not going to make half of the money their job career makes. It creates a barrier between a white graduate who can make back their payment without any struggle, versus a black graduate not being able to pay their debt even 15 years after graduation. Not only can student loans cause stress but they also push back major life milestones to a black graduate. J Geiman article states “Even for those who make their monthly payments, many make sacrifices to do so, including staying in unsatisfactory job and delaying homeownership or starting a family.” Every black student wants to be successful and have the job or the life to show for it. Unfortunately, some are not able to do so with getting the degree they worked for. What college doesn’t talk about is working four years to get the degree and is not guaranteed to work in that profession. That’s why some African Americans must come up with a plan b and work below what their qualifications are. Some turn into managers at fast food or retail places to help try to pay back their student loans which can been very hard on a person. Money that could be spent on brand new houses, cars, vacations, and luxury times is going to a det system that will never go away.
Student aid has a program called “student loan forgiveness,” offering to have them three types of forgiveness plans for federal student loans. The three plans are Forgiveness, cancellation, and discharge which means either one that you qualify for you are no longer required to pay some or all your loan. The three forgiveness plans are similar but is used in different ways. Forgiveness and cancellation are having to no longer be required to pay your loans back due to your job. The discharge plan must be a total and permanent disability or closure of the school where you received your loans. Borrower defense to repayment that could help African Americans is being eligible for discharge if their school did something or failed to do something related to your loan. Also, if a person of color is employed by the government, then they can apply for the “public service loan forgiveness program,” also known as the PSLF. The PSLF forgives the remaining of their loans after you successfully made 120 qualifying monthly payments while working fulltime at that government job. When applying your application could either be approved which means you wouldn’t have to pay your loans anymore. Being denied which means you are still required pay back your loan.
Student loan debt is not the easiest to get rid of for African American students due to coming from low-income households. We faced with struggles of having to find a job that best suits for degree but is turned down by the lack of job opportunities after college. We prove that we are worthily to be in high professions but are overlooked. Life is being missed out for students that are coming straight out of college who want to have a life planned out for them. Getting a car, house, credit score going down is hard to face when you see other people fulfill that dream. A special thanks to student aid seeing the difficulty in paying back student loans they came up with certain programs to help pay or get rid of them forever.
Citations:
https://hbr.org/2019/09/what-will-it-take-to-solve-the-student-loan-crisis
https://hbr.org/2019/09/what-will-it-take-to-solve-the-student-loan-crisis