It’s well known that graduating college students in recent years have faced student loan debt at unprecedented levels far exceeding that of previous generations of American graduates. Nonetheless, a new report released by the New York-based Demos public policy organization documents the patterns of debt along racial and class lines with Black, Latino, and low-income students taking out higher loans than Whites and more likely to drop out with significant debt.
In “The Debt Divide: The Racial and Class Bias Behind the ‘New Normal’ of Student Borrowing,” Demos senior policy analyst Mark Huelsman details a system that is highly stratified along class and racial lines. The nation’s debt-financed system for college enrollment not only produces higher loan balances for low-income, Black, and Latino students, but also results in high numbers of low-income students and minority students leaving school without receiving a credential, according to the report.
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