Student Debt Argument

Words: 638
Pages: 3

The Need for Radical Action on Student Debt With how prominent the issue of student debt is, it is shocking how rare its inclusion in political discussions is. Student debt has consistently been increasing at a dramatic rate; it has more than doubled in the last two decades (“Is Rising. U.S. Economy”). This has already been a burden to the people of the U.S. for as long as they can remember, and it’s only worse for the forty-four million current borrowers that owe more than $1.6 trillion in student loans from the federal government (“Is Rising. U.S. Economy”). This tremendous weight has impacted debtors in a multitude of ways and has alarmingly restrained the U.S. as a whole. The immense amount of student debt in the United States should be forgiven to improve the …show more content…
To go further, student debt has added fuel to the fire of inequality in the U.S. First of all, it is abundantly clear that student debt disproportionately hurts black students. This is because black students, on average, are required to borrow more than white students due to trends in generational wealth and the need to outcompete white people who have the systemic advantages in selection for job positions (“Student Loan. Pros and Cons”). As a matter of fact, the racial wealth gap is noticeably more prominent when student debt is introduced, with a ratio of 12:1 of white to black households in median wealth including student debt and a ratio of 5:1 withholding it (Steinbaum). There is definitely other work needed to rectify the gap, but student debt forgiveness could be a breakthrough. Moreover, the difference in racial wealth, which is only worsened by student debt, pushes many black and brown students into inferior institutions, further reducing their opportunities to compete with their white counterparts (Levitz). Equalization of education opportunities encourages a changed future. However, this inequality isn’t limited to people of