Most of America is struggling to pay off their student loans. In fact, some experts say student loan debt could lead to
According to a new analysis by left-leaning think tank Demos, white men are paying off a whopping 44 percent of their loans 12 years after college.
“For white women, that share drops to 28 percent. For Black borrowers, the picture is even bleaker. Black women see their loan balances actually grow 13 percent on average, 12 years after leaving school, while Black men see their balances grow 11 percent,” Market Watch reported.
There are solid reasons behind the gap. One factor is the age at which one enters colleges. Blacks tend to enter college later. “Students who start college at age 20 or older have paid off just 5 percent of their debt on average, at minimum, 12 years after leaving school. Students who enter school at age 18 or 19 have typically paid off more than one-quarter of their debt 12 years after leaving college, the report found,” Market Watch reported.
Listen to GHOGH with Jamarlin Martin | Episode 51: Bärí A. Williams Part 2.
Jamarlin talks to tech attorney and diversity strategist Bärí Williams about the growing gap in big tech regulations between the U.S. and E.U., and why Democrats have been slow in bangin’ against Silicon Valley greed compared to Wall Street greed in 2008. They also discuss reparations and artificial intelligence being weaponized against Black people.
Another reason is the racial wealth gap means. Black families, in general, have less wealth to draw from to pay for college. As a result, Black students tend to borrow more. On top of this Blacks are less likely to have family resources to turn to for financial support.
“The ability to pay off your loans has everything to do with wages and the ability to gain secure employment, it has everything to do with housing affordability, it has everything to do with child-care costs,” said Mark Huelsman, associate director, policy and research at Demos.
And once students graduate, white graduates have a higher earning capacity.
“White households with a bachelor’s degree have about $400,000 in net worth, compared to $68,000 for Black households with a college degree,” Market Watch reported.
“Education is not in its own right the great equalizer and, if we add student debt on top of that, we may be making the problem worse,” Huelsman said.
As economist William A. “Sandy” Darity, Jr., Arts and Sciences Professor of Public Policy at the Sanford School at Duke University, recently tweeted: “Yes, and while student debt (and debt in general) certainly is important, low Black wealth is primarily due to low levels of Black asset ownership. The focus on debt diminishes the attention that should be given to the sheer lack of financial and physical assets.”
