The Racial Dynamics of Student Loan Relief
By 
As Scott points out, the Supreme Court is going to throw out Biden’s student loan relief program based on the solid Constitutional principle of “Fuck Democrats.” While I don’t think the racial aspects of this is why Alito and crew are doing this, the fact that it will hurt Black people disproportionately surely is just upside for them.
Black borrowers hold a disproportionate share of student loan debt, and many likely were recipients of Pell Grants, federal aid to help low-income students pay for higher education. Those federal student loan borrowers who received Pell Grants could qualify for up to $20,000 in debt forgiveness under the administration plan.
Fenaba Addo, an associate professor of public policy in the Department of Public Policy at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, with her colleagues has studied the rise in student debt. They have looked at which borrowers have disproportionately accumulated the most debt and are struggling the most with repayments, as well as which borrowers are overly concentrated in the pools of defaulters.
“Time and time again, we see Black borrowers over-represented in both of those groups and really struggling with the current policies and programs in place that reportedly were supposed to be assisting and helping borrowers pay down their debts,” she said.
Addo pointed out some policies in place that were targeted to help low-income students, such as Pell Grants, “but that didn’t keep up with inflation over time.”
“The solution has been a debt solution,” she said. “It hasn’t been, let’s figure out how to increase resources, economic resources of households, or how to get people more income. It’s been let’s figure out a way to saddle them with debt.”
On average, Black college graduates at the time they leave school owe $7,400 more than their white peers, or $23,400 versus $16,000, according to a study by the Brookings Institution. But within four years after graduation, due to differences in interest accrual and graduate school borrowing, Black borrowers hold about $53,000 in student loan debt, or nearly twice as much as their white peers, the study found.
Clarence Thomas laughs and laughs.