A report released by the National Consumer Law Center and the Center for Law and Social Policy (CLASP) calling for “broad-based” cancellation of student loans, extending the moratorium on making student loan payments, and “strengthening” repayment options, as a means of helping individuals with student loan debts while also closing the racial wealth gap.
The report walks through the disparities between white individuals with student loan debts and African-Americans, pointing out that white individuals receive more financial assistance from their parents than African-Americans do, with respect to paying for education, meaning that more African-Americans have to take out student loans than white individuals.
“The Biden Administration has promised widespread relief and student loan reform, both of which are critical for Black Americans still struggling to recover from the economic impacts of the COVID-19 pandemic,” said Alpha Taylor, staff attorney at the National Consumer Law Center, in a statement. “By adopting the solutions outlined in our report, policymakers can begin to remediate decades of harm suffered by existing borrowers and ensure that Black Americans are able to obtain a college degree without the disproportionate, intergenerational burden of student loan debt.”
Proposals to cancel $10,000 of student loan debt would not go far enough to easing the burdens of those with unpaid student loans, the reports conclude, especially for African-Americans. The report calls on the Biden Administration to cancel $50,000 of student loans for everyone, and doing so would fully cancel the student loan debts for more than three-quarters of all individuals, including 95% of those who were delinquent or in default when the pandemic began.
