Those with student debt call for action as payments set to resume in the fall

College is a defining moment in life, but many Americans will tell you that the cost of higher education had a huge impact.

“While it was a great experience, I made great network connections and learned a lot, but after I finished I learned that employers don’t offer competitive salaries for this degree and I wondered, ‘Was it even worth getting this degree? said Jessica Gawrych.

For Tyrone Hanley, who grew up outside of Chicago, college wasn’t a guarantee.

“I grew up in poverty,” he said. “My mother raised us in Division 8.”

Hanley overcame adversity and graduated from law school, but found that the road to a better life comes at a price. He says he currently owes around $ 200,000 in student debt.

“I wouldn’t go to high school again,” said Gawrych. “I would do a bachelor’s degree again, but I would give priority to the state schools, which offered me a more reasonable financial package.”

Gawrych is a first generation college student who grew up in Massachusetts and is the daughter of Polish immigrants. She says it is hard to think about the future now if she’s still paying for what it took to earn bachelor’s and master’s degrees.

“How can I think about bearing a child when I’m nearly $ 100,000 in debt?” She asked.

More than 44 million Americans have student loans, more than the entire California population.

According to the Student Loan Hero website, that adds up to more than $ 1.7 trillion.

But during the pandemic, the government put a break on borrowers who had to make federal student loan payments.

“I was able to set aside money for my savings, so now I have more savings than I have ever had in my entire life,” Hanley said.

October could be an unwanted return to normal. Borrowers have to make payments again.

“I went to law school and my parents could afford to send me to college,” said Janeese Lewis George, a member of the DC Democratic Council.

Lewis George himself still carries tens of thousands of dollars in student debt.

“For many of us we had no other choice,” she says. “We were sold a dream at a high price.”

African American college graduates owe an average of $ 25,000 more than college graduates who are white. Experts say that black college students often have to take out larger loans to pay for school.

“In the black community, it feels like student loan debt is stifling our ability to achieve even an inch of prosperity or progress and community,” said Lewis George.

Lewis George tabled a resolution in their town that was unanimously adopted by the council calling on President Biden to cancel student loan debt. Cities like Boston and Philadelphia have done the same.

“We’re trying to make this a national push. Next, we’re going to send our resolution to other cities across the country and say, ‘Hey, let’s stand together in solidarity and let this administration know that student loan debt is in crisis,’ “said Lewis George.

Critics point to the cost of granting student loans and say it is unfair to let debtors off the hook.

“You have to go to college and in many cases you have to go to college to get a decent income, especially if you grew up poor like me,” Hanley said.

“In my experience, I didn’t have one, my parents didn’t know how to advise me in this process. I had no one to help me fill out my FAFSA or fill out a good scholarship or what is a” good loan or a good interest rate is. I didn’t understand that until years later, “said Gawrych.

It’s easy to reference numbers to show just how big the student debt problem is. Those with him say, to see his true toll, look at the people in his grasp.

“I think through our stories people can really have a better understanding on an emotional and human level, to really get into their subject, to understand what my generation and the younger generations are dealing with right now,” said Hanley.

source https://collegeeducationnewsllc.com/those-with-student-debt-call-for-action-as-payments-set-to-resume-in-the-fall/