Borrowing While Black:
Understanding What Makes Student Debt a Crisis for Black Students
View webinar recording
While the $1.6 trillion in student
debt indicates a crisis for all students, borrowing for college
while Black is a different experience. Black students are more
likely to borrow, borrow more, owe more than their original loan
amount and struggle with repayment. They are more likely to
have higher default rates, even among those who earn a college
degree and come from high-income families. In this webinar, SREB
and Ed Trust highlighted the historical and systemic
injustices that have fueled this crisis and offer race-conscious
recommendations at the federal and state level to help make
college more affordable for Black students.
PresenterS
Tiffany Jones is the senior
director of higher education policy at the Education Trust, where
she promotes legislation to improve access,
affordability and success for low-income students and
students of color. Central to this work is supporting equity- and
student-centered accountability and affordability policies at the
state and federal levels. Before joining Ed Trust, Jones led the
higher ed work at the Southern Education Foundation, where she
partnered with historically Black colleges and universities and
Hispanic-serving institutions to advance student success and
engage in analysis of federal and state policies using an equity
lens. A Michigan native, Jones holds a Ph.D. in urban education
policy from the University of Southern California, a master’s
degree in higher education administration from the University of
Maryland, College Park and a bachelor’s degree in family
studies and English from Central Michigan University.
Victoria Jackson is a senior policy
analyst for higher education, focusing on college affordability
and student debt. She is also leading Ed Trust’s National Study
on Black Student Loan Debt, which will conduct surveys and
interviews that center the voices, decisions and experiences of
Black borrowers. Before joining the Education Trust, Jackson
worked at Policy Matters Ohio as a state policy fellow focusing
on higher education, K-12 education and federal food aid. While
in graduate school, Jackson worked as a graduate assistant for
the Kirwan Institute for the Study of Race and Ethnicity, and for
the Ohio Department of Education. Jackson holds a master’s
degree in public administration from Ohio State
University and a bachelor’s degree in pan-African studies from
Kent State University.
Jaime Ramirez-Mendoza, higher
education policy analyst at the Education Trust, collaborates
with partners and experts to advance equitable policies around
college affordability and student debt at the federal,
state and institution level. He is also involved in the
National Study on Black Student Loan Debt project. Before joining
Ed Trust, Ramirez-Mendoza worked in diversity, equity, and
inclusion efforts at the Harvard Graduate School of Education and
as a college advisor for Destination College Advising Corps at
University of California, Berkeley. A native of Smith River,
California, he holds a master’s degree in higher education from
Harvard and a bachelor’s degree in Chicanx studies and managerial
economics from the University of California, Davis.
