The Connection Between Student Loan Debt And The Racial Wealth Gap

Mark Huelsman is Associate Director of Policy & Research at Demos, where their mission centers around creating a just, inclusive, multiracial democracy. 

Huelsman told BET that researchers considered all angles from paying for college and accessing academic opportunities, to the job market with or without postsecondary credentials. They discovered that student debt and the racial wealth gap mutually reinforce each other.

“Education is supposed to be the great equalizer in America,” said Huelsman. “Many students will say, `I can’t afford not to go to school.’ But lack of wealth requires Black borrowers to take on far more debt than their white peers and puts them at greater risk of default. And it creates a vicious cycle.”

Read more at BET