The faces of student loan debt

The Supreme Court’s decision to block President Biden’s student loan forgiveness plan has sparked deep feelings of frustration, anxiety and even anger for young people, in particular people of color.

Currently, 43 million Americans have student loan debt, totaling more than $1.6 trillion, according to Forbes. But the breakdown of who holds how much debt varies widely depending on gender and race.

Black Americans with bachelor’s degrees have an average of $52,000 in student loan debt. Forty percent of Black students have debt from graduate school, compared to only 22 percent of white college graduates.

Breaking things down by gender, Women graduate owing an average of almost $22,000, while men owe about $18,880. Black women graduate with an average of $37,558 in debt.

When President Biden announced last August he would be forgiving up to $20,000 in student loan debt forgiveness, millions of Americans breathed a sigh of relief. But anxieties soon rose when the Supreme Court agreed to hear challenges on the legality of the plan.

Now, with the top court’s ruling on Friday, many young people find themselves wondering what comes next.

Here are some of the faces of student loan debt in America.

Jada Thompson

Jada Thompson (Cheyanne Daniels)

Jada Thompson, 21, is a rising senior at Howard University in Washington, D.C. She currently has $14,000 in student loans, but she expects that to double this year as her school raises tuition. In addition, that debt would increase drastically if she follows her dream of attending law school.

Thompson told The Hill that student debt forgiveness would have been a “relief.”

“I want to go to law school, so looking at tuition now it’s like, oh my gosh, it’s $104,000 a year for me to go to law school,” she said. “Being in law is not just for me and my family, it’s for the people in the community. I want to give back to our nonprofit organizations and at this point, it seems like it’s out of reach. Because of the lack of cancellation of student loan debt, no matter how minimal mine is, it’s gonna accumulate over the years and the fear of not being able to accomplish things or to give back to my community has really set in today.”

Thompson said she has always firmly believed in not only term limits for the Supreme Court, but also age limits. Those feelings have only grown stronger following Friday’s decision.

“I believe that people who are over a certain age should not be making choices for people in our community,” said Thompson. “A lot of them are out of touch, especially when you hit a certain economic status.”

Thompson describes herself as an “extreme advocate for voting” and said she plans to vote in 2024, but added she looks at it a little differently now.

“This was a promise that was made to us,” she said. “And this was the main focus of Joe Biden’s election. We voted for him in hopes that he would change things, especially with him having Kamala at his side, a Howard University graduate. We expect change and we expect the differences to be made in our community.”

Tylik McMillan 

Tylik McMillan (Cheyanne Daniels)

Tylik McMillan graduated with $50,000 in student loan debt. For him, forgiveness would have been a chance to begin building a future for both himself and his family.

“It would have given me an opportunity to invest, to be able to buy a home, to start a business,” said McMillan. “I have younger siblings, I have a single mother, a father who is incarcerated, and so I think about what it could have done for my family.”

McMillan didn’t hold back in expressing his frustrations toward a court he said has deeply impacted Black and brown people all over the nation with its decision this week, including one on Thursday to strike down race-conscious student admissions.

“What they did yesterday and today is not about opportunity, it’s about oppression,” said McMillan. “It’s ludicrous to me … as we talk about shutting down what the voters are demanding.”

McMillan said he plans to vote in 2024 because “voting has consequences,” but he also said the court needs to change to keep up with the overall perspective of the current ideological makeup of America. He wants to see term limits or even expanding the bench.

“I think this bench is a drawback to the progress that we’re trying to make as a nation,” McMillian said.

Amari Fennoy

Amari Fennoy (Cheyanne Daniels)

Amari Fennoy holds $58,000 in student loan debt from obtaining her Master’s degree. But she’s not the only one in her family who would have benefitted from Biden’s student loan forgiveness. Fennoy said her mother took out more than $170,000 in parental PLUS loans to help her attend Spelman College, the historically Black women’s school.

With Friday’s decision, Fennoy said she feels much of her life has been put on hold.

“I have taken a pause on thinking about anything in terms of family or home ownership or anything of that nature because I know that I owe student debt,” said Fennoy, 26. “So today, I am saddened by the news, but I’m still here for the fight because I understand that there are other avenues to cancel student debt for myself and my family.”

Those other avenues, she said, should come from Biden, whose campaign promised to cancel student debt.

“We will continue to mobilize our community, we’re going to continue to push forward,” said Fennoy. “Elections have consequences, but the people have power. So we’re going to use our power to ensure that we elect individuals who are in our likeness, but also ensure that they also push for individuals who actually encompass what we look like as a people.”

Despite Friday’s loss, Fennoy said she will be casting her ballot in 2024. The importance of voting was instilled in her at a young age, and Friday’s decision made clear what is at stake.

“My mother would take me to the voting polls with her. When I was 18 I took the day off from school to work the polls, so for me, elections are important,” she said. “I would never skip because of a situation like this, but it’s also important to educate other individuals to know, no matter the decision, you still have to get out to vote.”

Torrey Rodgers III

Torrey Rodgers (Cheyanne Daniels)

Torrey Rodgers is one of the lucky ones — he doesn’t possess any student loan debt. But that’s because his mother and other family members took out loans, like parental PLUS loans, to ensure he could go to Morgan State University.

“I’m here in support of my mother to make sure people like her don’t have to do that,” Rodgers said. “So my friends don’t have to do that. And so other people who have a little bit of debt, they can be relinquished so they can do actual purchases that will help them move on with racial equity.”

Rodgers isn’t alone in his concerns around the impact of student loan debt on the racial wealth gap.

Advocates say student loan forgiveness is a racial justice issue because of the racial disparities in the need for loans. In fact, the NAACP on Friday condemned the Court’s ruling because  “education has long been regarded as a path toward generational wealth, economic liberation, and securing the American dream.” Student debt, the NAACP said, is killing that dream.

For Rodgers, Friday’s decision was just one in a long line of decisions that have shattered his faith in the Supreme Court.

“It’s not just student debt. It’s affirmative action. It’s them saying that you can discriminate against [LGBTQ people],” he said. “This Supreme Court has made a lot of bad choices in a very small short time and I just want to show discontent. I want to show dissent. This is not just a fun little game, little debate. These are lives you’re playing with.”

Satra Taylor

Satra Taylor (Cheyanne Daniels)

Satra Taylor is the director of higher education and workforce policy and advocacy for the progressive group Young Invincibles. Though an advocate, she herself has more than $100,000 in student loan debt. Most of that debt was acquired when she sought a graduate degree.

Student loan forgiveness, Taylor told The Hill, is personal for her.

“Today’s decision is devastating,” an emotional Taylor said outside the Supreme Court on Friday. “I’m the oldest of six, and all of my siblings who went to college would have had their debt wiped out if debt cancellation would have happened.”

Taylor is one of many who is concerned about the impact student loan debt has on Black Americans, and particularly Black women.

“This is a shameful example of this Supreme Court choosing politics over people,” she said.

Taylor said Young Invincibles will continue to push for student loan forgiveness, including more than the $20,000 proposed by Biden. The organization, she said, wants to see a minimum of $50,000 in forgiveness, but the ultimate goal will be debt-free, affordable college.

D’Aungillique Jackson

D’Aungillique Jackson (Cheyanne Daniels)

D’Aungillique Jackson lives in Fresno, Calif., where she works three jobs in the hopes of paying off her $20,000 in student loans. It doesn’t help, she said, that the rent increases in her home state have increased dramatically since the COVID-19 pandemic, creating additional financial stress.

“For me, student debt relief would have meant maybe working one less job, maybe not having to worry about if I’m going to pursue a secondary degree,” Jackson told The Hill. “So this decision was kind of heartbreaking.”

Like many others, Jackson was particularly disappointed to see Friday’s ruling come after the decision to end race-conscious admissions. With these decisions, she said, the court is sending a troubling message.

“It sends a resounding message to Black people, to all people of color, that it’s okay for us to be in the barracks but it’s not okay for us to be in the boardroom,” she said. “All of these together, it’s a very resounding message to people of color that this government doesn’t think we’re capable of pursuing higher and I disagree with that.”

Though she’s disappointed with the court, Jackson said she has been organizing for 13 years — no small feat considering she’s only 25. But she said organizing has given her a sense of hope in the “power of the people.”

“I can say for myself as a Black queer woman, every single one of these major decisions made by the Supreme Court within this last year have been devastating,” she said, referring to the overturning of Roe v. Wade, affirmative action, new limitations on LGBTQ protections and the student loan decision.

“I’m going to tell every other Black person around me the same message: Though we feel this heartbreak, it’s not a moment for us to slow down or stop or lose hope,” Jackson added. “This is the fire we need to keep going and it always will be.”

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