In 2022, President Biden’s administration announced a federal student loan forgiveness program that would cancel up to $10,000 or $20,000 for Pell Grant recipients making less than $125,000 a year marking the first large scale student loan forgiveness plan.
Great, but it’s not enough for our community.
The modern higher education system has been marketed to Black America as the best means of moving upward in life. Truth is, many of us are instead slammed with large student loan debts before we ever walk the graduation stage.
Pell Grant recipients receiving up to $20,000 does some to address Black borrowers as nearly 60% or Black college students receive it. $20,000 is great for those with smaller debt amounts, but according to the Brookings Institute, “Black graduates hold nearly $53,000 in student debt four years after graduation.”
Even with current forgiveness programs, the majority of students in our community will still be straddled with massive debt. This does nothing to build our community up financially!
Canceling just a portion of student loans will not be the sweeping prayer our community needs to improve financially as a community. The government - which has betrayed us so many times - needs to do more to address the consequences it has created.