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After the great panel @EdTrust discussing Black student loan debt yesterday, I gave an overview of the student loans in the US. I mentioned I would share some of the articles I discussed. Here they are!
Removing access to student loans without supplanting that funding does not lead to student success https://www.nytimes.com/2019/09/06/business/student-loans-needed-community-colleges.html
Welding, and positions like it, do not always lead to economic prosperity https://www.theatlantic.com/education/archive/2019/09/welding-doesnt-pay-as-well-as-republicans-think/597733/
New research on grad debt shows the complexity of certain students (I.e., Black & low SES) getting substantial economic benefits from a grad degree but needing a significant amount of student loans to finance that degree https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/full/10.1177/0038040719876245
Debt is high at HBCUs, though there is ample room to discuss the ways chronic underfunding of these institutions (and difficulty for them to receive donations, bonds, etc) contributes to student loan reliance https://www.wsj.com/articles/the-student-debt-crisis-hits-hardest-at-historically-black-colleges-11555511327
For example, when restrictions increase for access to Parent PLUS loans, enrollment at HBCUs decrease b/c Black students, on average, go to school on the Parent PLUS loan https://ir.library.louisville.edu/jsfa/vol48/iss2/4/
And these interlocking issues create systematic challenges for finding solutions https://www.washingtonpost.com/local/education/robert-f-smith-lifted-a-debt-burden-from-396-morehouse-graduates-it-remains-for-thousands-of-other-african-americans/2019/05/31/65db01c8-7431-11e9-8be0-ca575670e91c_story.html?outputType=amp
And, if you're interested in some of my fav graphs and couldn't attend, here they are! (Most are from the 2018 College Board Trends in Student Aid)
The majority of borrowers have a small amount of outstanding debt
The primary increases in debt are for parents and grad students
Parent PLUS loan reliance shifts depending on the sector
In fact, loan balances for students shift depending on the sector. Here's bachelor's degree earners.
And here's associate's degree earners
And finally, regardless of income, Black students borrow at higher rates. In part, this is because income != wealth.
Oh and almost forgot. I mentioned the book Lower Ed as an excellent overview of why people are making very rational decisions when they enroll in for-profit institutions (oh that education gospel). https://thenewpress.com/books/lower-ed
