One major step in this direction could be cancelling the $1.

56 trillion in
student loans, which would help millions of people recover after the
pandemic subsides. Making public colleges, universities, and trade
schools free would also help those hit hard by the crisis rebuild their
futures and prevent another student debt crisis from emerging.

For marginalised communities of colour, who will bear the brunt of the
social and economic devastation the pandemic will leave behind, and
those who were already financially insecure before the outbreak, the need
for such measures is more urgent than ever.

Crushing debt and inequality

Over the past 15 years, student debt has more than quadrupled, going up
from $345bn in 2004 to nearly $1.56 trillion in 2020. It is half a trillion
more than credit card debt which now stands at $1 trillion.

Across the country 69 percent of students take out loans to pay for tuition
and other school expenses, and by the time they graduate they owe on
average nearly $30,000. 

Today, even though women make up 56 percent of college graduates, they

hold almost two-thirds of all student loan debt amounting to $929bn.

Student debt also disproportionately burdens students of colour, whose

communities have historically experienced many barriers to pursuing
higher education. Some 85 percent of black bachelor's degree
recipients have loans to pay after graduation, compared to 69 percent of
their white counterparts. Black students on average carry $34,000 in
student debt - $4,000 more than white students.

On average, white and Asian students earn college degrees at a rate

about 20 percentage points higher than Hispanic and Black students.

Black and other marginalised communities of colour,

are disproportionately impacted by predatory lenders, too. Private loans
for college tend to be the last resort when scholarships, grants and federal
loans can no longer cover expenses. These particular loans often come
with high interest rates and inflexible payment plans. Students then leave
college crushed with debt and with no degree to provide them with a wage
bump to help repay their loans.

According to the American Association of University Women (AAUW), 57

percent of Black women paying back student loans were not able to pay
for essential expenses.

Thus, instead of being an equaliser that helps close the wealth gap
between the rich and the poor, higher education in the US reproduces
inequality. It increases the indebtedness of communities who already
suffer from high levels of income insecurity and economic precarity.

It reinforces the cycle of poverty and the paycheck-to-paycheck life many

marginalised families are forced to live, even if they are better educated.
Parents with college degrees who have high levels of debt are unlikely to
be able to afford higher education for their own children.

The economic fallout of the pandemic threatens to make this situation

that much worse.

Free education