After graduation, more white students than students of color move on to complete degrees in graduate programs. They end up more successful in the workforce, often with higher paying jobs. The price of college and inability of minorities to pay for university contributes to the overall gap in pay, employment and social status that African Americans, Latinx and other students of color face.

Biden’s student loan repayment plan seems to be a step in the right direction in addressing the problems people of color face financially with higher education. If loan repayment and college in general was more affordable, people of lower financial classes could afford to send their children to university and not worry about having student loans to repay for the rest of their lives.

Biden’s new plan, announced Aug. 24, is a three-part initiative aimed at helping the working class. The first part provides $10,000 to $20,000 in loan forgiveness to individuals making less than $125,000 a year, and puts a pause on repayments through December. The second part cuts payments in half for undergraduate loans. Part three aims to lower tuition and hold schools accountable for increased prices.

According to the Education Data Initiative, there are approximately 43.4 million Americans currently in debt from student loans. This number has gradually increased by an average of 827,273 people per year for the last decade and is expected to continue its upward trend.

Biden’s plan is expected to help minority students in particular. Specifically Black and African American college students have an average of $25,000 more in student loans than white students. These students often have more debt and have a larger struggle paying it off. At Syracuse University, approximately 53 percent of the student population is white, leaving the remaining 47 percent to be students of color who are statistically more vulnerable to student debt.

With tuition prices rising across the country and inflation causing prominent financial strains on working-class families, a deterrence and reduction in student debt could really help families. SU has raised its cost of tuition over the past few years, currently making the 2022-2023 school year tuition $58,440, up 4.5 percent from the 2021-2022 school year.

While this forgiveness plan is a great tool for students and families to navigate the costs of college, it’s simply just a crack on solving the larger issue of affording higher education.

Skylar Swart is a senior political science major. Her column appears biweekly. She can be reached at saswart@syr.edu. She can be followed on Twitter at @SkylarSwart.

Published on September 22, 2022 at 12:22 am