Why the Gap Between White Men and Black Women Paying Off Student Loans Is So Huge

Barron's ^ | June 9, 2019 | Jillian Berman

[reaganaut1]

The experience of repaying student loans is unpleasant for millions of graduates, but for some borrowers, paying off student debt is an almost insurmountable challenge.

Twelve years after entering college, white men have paid off 44% of their student-loan balance on average, according to an analysis released Thursday by Demos, a left-leaning think tank. For white women, that share drops to 28%. For black borrowers, the picture is even bleaker. Black women see their loan balances actually grow 13% on average, 12 years after leaving school, while black men see their balances grow 11%.

The age at which students enter college also plays a role in their ability to pay off debt. Students who start college at age 20 or older have paid off just 5% of their debt on average, at minimum, 12 years after leaving school. Students who enter school at age 18 or 19 have typically paid off more than one-quarter of their debt 12 years after leaving college, the report found.

“We think of the ability to pay off student debt as only having to do with student debt,” said Mark Huelsman, associate director, policy and research at Demos and the author of the report. “We know the ability to pay off your loans has everything to do with wages and the ability to gain secure employment, it has everything to do with housing affordability, it has everything to do with child-care costs.”

Huelsman’s analysis is the latest to indicate that structural inequities mean that the student-debt burden is experienced differently by different types of borrowers and that a borrower’s demographics dictate in part how much of a financial benefit they get out of their degree. Undoing the harm caused by the nation’s $1.5 trillion student-loan problem requires a broader solution

[Svartalfiar]

Students who start college at age 20 or older have paid off just 5% of their debt on average, at minimum, 12 years after leaving school. Students who enter school at age 18 or 19 have typically paid off more than one-quarter of their debt 12 years after leaving college, the report found.

Well that one seems very backwards. People who spend a year or two working, then go to college, are typically smart enough to do some community college first, as well as have a better work (study) ethic, and generally have cheap housing, renting with friends. HS grads going straight to college tend to be more ready to party (finally free from Mon n Dad's rules), don't finish the basic liberal arts classes at a cheap CC, and are usually forced into paying for an expensive dorm room freshman, maybe even soph year also.

[17th Miss Regt]

Am now working on determining the current pay gap between persons who died 10-years ago and Burger King employees...

Suggestion: Also look at the differences in voting patterns between persons who died 10-years ago and Burger King employees...

[SuperLuminal]

"Suggestion: Also look at the differences in voting patterns between persons who died 10-years ago and Burger King employees..."

Yes! Bet if I applied to a carefully selected government agency I could get the funding... Your suggestion has direct impact on the issues of climate catastrophe as well as post-birth abortion in VA...

[Tired of Taxes]

Congratulations to your daughters and son, Chickensoup.

So far, my kids have managed to avoid college debt: One scored high enough for a full ride and graduated debt-free. Another started at a county college, and yet another is headed there soon.

I wish both Dems and GOPers would stop making “race” an issue. Both sides keep throwing around statistics and then jumping to conclusions about the numbers.

[GOPJ]

Against this backdrop, college is less choice than ultimatum.

Orienting the American educational system toward college ensures that the majority who would achieve greater success on an alternative pathway are poorly served—indeed, they’re obstructed from reaching it.

The approach also entails an enormous waste of public resources and student time, unleashing a vicious cycle in which, since everyone is encouraged to try college, all resources are focused on college-going—and so, of course, everyone tries college.

Enrolling in a program that you’re unprepared for and unlikely to complete actually makes sense if society will throw gobs of money at you for doing it, and if the alternative is, well, nothing. This is doubly true if your high school emphasized only college preparation, so you’ve already sunk years of time into pursuing this path.

Maybe the reason for this insanity is the primary beneficiaries of it are the same members of the 'education establishment' who should be fixing it... and for obvious reasons - never will.

[Chickensoup]

Oh, I am all for taxing the endowments and having colleges who have particpated in the student loan decible sell assets so this can pass.

They were the architechts and they need to be responsible and pay up.

[GOPJ]

It’s going to be tricky coming up with solutions that don’t make things worse. Always is...

By the way, excellent link (https://www.city-journal.org/vocational-education) Soup thanks for sharing...