- A new survey found 44% of
HBCU students report skipping meals because of theirstudent debt . - Rep. Alma Adams, in response to the findings, emphasized the need for more HBCU funding.
The $1.7 trillion student debt crisis disproportionately falls on the shoulders of Black borrowers, and for students at Historically Black Colleges and Universities (HBCUs), loans are getting in the way of basic needs.
A survey released Tuesday by the United Negro College Fund, the Center for Responsible Lending and the UNC Center for Community Capital examines the impact of student debt on current and former HBCU students compared to the experiences of their Black peers at predominately white institutions (PWIs). It found that more than two in five, or 44%, of current Black student-loan borrowers at HBCUs reported skipping meals because they didn't have enough money for food, while 29% of Black borrowers at PWIs reported the same.
"Sometimes in a month I won't be able to buy groceries or even keep up [with my finances], but I get help from some friends who sometimes give me food," a 24-year-old survey respondent at an HBCU said.
North Carolina Rep. Alma Adams, founder and co-chair of the Congressional Bipartisan HBCU Caucus, said during a Facebook Live on Tuesday that it comes down to lack of HBCU funding that contributes to the student debt crisis for Black borrowers.
"The history of HBCUs is one of triumph over adversity," Adams said. "Our institutions have had to overcome historic underfunding compared to PWIs, and they've endured the legacy of Jim Crow."
Democrats' $1.75 trillion social-spending framework includes a $2 billion investment for HBCUs. While that's more than the government has ever dedicated to those institutions, Adams said further investment is needed.
Insider has previously reported on the uneven student debt burden for Black borrowers. President Lyndon B. Johnson created the student-loan industry to help solve racial inequality, but it ended up doing the opposite as banks began to raise interest rates on the loans and prioritize profits.
US Census data revealed in August that even if they didn't finish college, Black student-loan borrowers carry the same debt burden as a white adults with an advanced degree, and according to a recent survey by The Education Trust, 66% of Black borrowers regret taking on debt because of the difficulty they have paying it back.
And Housing and Urban Development (HUD) Secretary
"Who has student debt? Poor people, Black people, brown people," Fudge said. "We're the people who carry most debt. And so the system's already skewed toward us not being creditworthy."