ogc163
Superstar
When I graduated with a bachelor’s degree from William & Mary in 2003, I desperately needed a job. I was the mother of a 4-year-old daughter, and I was consumed by worries about child care, the car note for my used Honda Civic and saving for my own apartment. In addition, I had $30,000 in student debt.
In recent years, as U.S. student loan debt climbed to $1.6 trillion, the country has finally begun to talk about the punishing financial costs of obtaining a college degree. But the singular toll on students like me — Black parents — continues to go largely unremarked upon.
Black parents hold more student debt than parents or nonparents of any other racial or ethnic group. According to the Institute for Women’s Policy Research, Black students who are raising children borrow an average of $18,100 for college, compared with an average of $13,500 among all students.
We’re not talking about this crisis within a crisis in part because we don’t talk about student parents in general. That’s because we cling to an outdated view of who college students are — young people on the cusp of adulthood with few responsibilities. But that’s no longer the case. Because of this outdated notion, very few colleges even keep data on whether their students are parents. But we know from an analysis of federal data that nationally, one in five college students is parenting, more than a third of Black college students are parents, and nearly half of all Black female undergraduates are mothers.
“Solutions to the student debt crisis have to address the unique needs of student parents as well as the racial inequities that disproportionately burden Black parents.”
As the country undergoes a period of historic racial reckoning, with nearly every sector of society examining its role in racial injustice, higher education needs to do the same. Colleges and universities must look closely at why the burden of student debt falls disproportionately on Black parents. We need to name the racist policies baked into our postsecondary system that contribute to this unequal burden. And we need to acknowledge the oppressive policies that make it unnecessarily difficult for parents of color to earn a degree and to do so without the anchor of crushing debt. Only then can we create and implement policies that support Black families on their journey to opportunity and prosperity.
Why do Black students with children carry the most student debt? First, there’s the racial wealth gap. The average net worth of white families ($171,000) is ten times greater than that of Black families ($17,150), which makes college prohibitively expensive for many Black parents. Second, student parents have more financial responsibilities than other students — costs like child care, steeper rent, more groceries and medical expenses. Third, for students of color, the financial aid process can feel like a maze riddled with unnecessary barriers and dead ends.
Related: The human cost of college debt that becomes ‘purgatory’
Generation Hope, the nonprofit I founded in 2010 to help young parents earn their college degrees while readying their children for kindergarten, conducted a national survey of student parents this spring. Fifteen percent of student parent respondents told us the financial aid office was inaccessible. Of the respondents, Black student parents had the most trouble, with 38 percent finding the financial aid process difficult or very difficult to navigate.
In recent years, as U.S. student loan debt climbed to $1.6 trillion, the country has finally begun to talk about the punishing financial costs of obtaining a college degree. But the singular toll on students like me — Black parents — continues to go largely unremarked upon.
Black parents hold more student debt than parents or nonparents of any other racial or ethnic group. According to the Institute for Women’s Policy Research, Black students who are raising children borrow an average of $18,100 for college, compared with an average of $13,500 among all students.
We’re not talking about this crisis within a crisis in part because we don’t talk about student parents in general. That’s because we cling to an outdated view of who college students are — young people on the cusp of adulthood with few responsibilities. But that’s no longer the case. Because of this outdated notion, very few colleges even keep data on whether their students are parents. But we know from an analysis of federal data that nationally, one in five college students is parenting, more than a third of Black college students are parents, and nearly half of all Black female undergraduates are mothers.
“Solutions to the student debt crisis have to address the unique needs of student parents as well as the racial inequities that disproportionately burden Black parents.”
As the country undergoes a period of historic racial reckoning, with nearly every sector of society examining its role in racial injustice, higher education needs to do the same. Colleges and universities must look closely at why the burden of student debt falls disproportionately on Black parents. We need to name the racist policies baked into our postsecondary system that contribute to this unequal burden. And we need to acknowledge the oppressive policies that make it unnecessarily difficult for parents of color to earn a degree and to do so without the anchor of crushing debt. Only then can we create and implement policies that support Black families on their journey to opportunity and prosperity.
Why do Black students with children carry the most student debt? First, there’s the racial wealth gap. The average net worth of white families ($171,000) is ten times greater than that of Black families ($17,150), which makes college prohibitively expensive for many Black parents. Second, student parents have more financial responsibilities than other students — costs like child care, steeper rent, more groceries and medical expenses. Third, for students of color, the financial aid process can feel like a maze riddled with unnecessary barriers and dead ends.
Related: The human cost of college debt that becomes ‘purgatory’
Generation Hope, the nonprofit I founded in 2010 to help young parents earn their college degrees while readying their children for kindergarten, conducted a national survey of student parents this spring. Fifteen percent of student parent respondents told us the financial aid office was inaccessible. Of the respondents, Black student parents had the most trouble, with 38 percent finding the financial aid process difficult or very difficult to navigate.
