On Wednesday afternoon, a panel of academics and advocates gathered to discuss topics in Dr. Jamal Watson’s latest book, The Student Debt Crisis: America’s Moral Urgency. A clear theme of the book is that student debt is a racial and justice issue.
Watson, an award-winning higher education journalist and professor and associate dean at Trinity Washington University, moderated the hour-long conversation.
Dr. Charles H.F. Davis III, an assistant professor in the Center for the Study of Higher and Post-Secondary Education at the University of Michigan, noted that 86% of overall wealth in the United States is held by white families and 2.9% by Black families. The student debt burden, he added, is also a racialized phenomenon that complicates the wealth gap.
“Even those who have had opportunities to access financial aid or grant packages but come from low-income backgrounds, are often leaving college in a worse financial state than they entered,” said Davis, who added that Black students are taking on student loans at a higher rate than white students. “These students are also more vulnerable in the inability to pay back that loan because they’re going into a racist and sexist labor market,” he added.
Tylik McMillan, an advocate and strategist around student debt issues who is featured in the book, said student loan debt has to be seen as a civil rights issue.
“Young people, especially Black and Brown youth, are told that education is the pathway forward, yet we graduate shackled with debt that locks us out of building wealth and buying homes, or even choosing careers based on our passions instead of survival,” he said. “Progress will stall until we treat it as the issue that it is, and that is a racial equity and liberation issue.”
Rehva Jones an executive strategist and doctoral student, has studied Black women pursuing MBAs. Despite earning a degree that is seen as a ticket to success, she said that they are often locked out of the most desirable jobs and find themselves saddled with debt.
Dr. Donna Y. Ford, a distinguished professor of education & human ecology at The Ohio State University, spoke about the need for a pipeline that builds the skills to access and succeed in higher education—at both public and elite private institutions. When she was a low-income teenager aspiring to attend higher education, she succeeded because she was a good test taker, having been taught how to take tests. “I don’t think that’s done enough today, where we learn how to take tests,” Ford said. “We have to teach our students about test bias and about test wiseness.”
Ford advocated for culturally responsive school counselors. She said that it is also essential to look at K–12 education, especially for gifted and talented students, making access more equitable.
“Black children are underrepresented in gifted programs by almost 50%, Hispanics by around 40%,” she explained.
McMillan recalled his days as a student at North Carolina A&T State University, the nation’s largest HBCU institution. Despite getting good grades, he thought he would have to drop out when his mother was diagnosed with cancer, and his father was incarcerated. He was able to graduate because the chancellor believed in him, something McMillan wants for all students faced with challenging circumstances.
“Not every student has that opportunity to have chancellors like Chancellor Harold Martin (now Chancellor Emeritus) and North Carolina A&T to have, advisors and deans that would pull the last dollar out of the budget to make sure that students like me stayed in school,” McMillan said. “What can I do to ensure that nobody else has to experience what I experienced and what other students experience?”
Davis said institutions need to see investing in students as a societal good and see their role as providing critical access. This could include offering scholarships not only for tuition, but for all costs, including spring break experiences that add so much to a student’s overall success.
“Another piece of this is being able to leverage the university’s political capital, both in federal financial aid policy making, as well as in the state house,” said Davis. “Often institutions, especially now, are adopting these positions of neutrality, but we know that colleges and universities are not neutral. They have a lot of political muscle; they hire lobbyists in a number of spaces to advocate for their needs and desires as institutions, whether that be stadium rights and buildings or other things that they’re interested in. How could they not also leverage that political muscle to shape financial aid policy that would better support students to get access to the resources that they offer?”
If the private sector insists a certain advanced degree is required to fill a certain job, a student will accrue more debt to achieve that, and in the case of minority students they will often not get the job needed to meet their debt, said Jones, who has taught business courses at several colleges and universities.
“Build pathways where Black women not only enter, but thrive through fair promotions, pay equity and leadership opportunities,” Jones added.
It was agreed upon that tuition freezes are a good starting point. Watson pointed out that organizations like the United Negro College Fund (UNCF) and the Thurgood Marshall College Fund (TMCF) have consistently called for the doubling of the Pell Grants. Additionally, full relief from student debt, Watson added, would enable individuals to bring more resources and commerce into their communities.
“We need a shift in mindset that education is not a privilege, but it is a right,” said McMillan. “It should really be the foundation.”
You can watch the webinar here.
