![]() Green said she sees both court cases as connected to conservative attacks on diversity, equity and inclusion programs. Some of that was erased under a public service forgiveness program when she completed two terms with Americorps, and she whittled it down further with monthly installments until the government paused repayment due to the pandemic. Green, who grew up in a low-income household in Harlem, New York, graduated from Rochester with about $40,000 in federal loan debt. The two court challenges, she said, can be seen “as linked backlash to two attempts towards racial justice.” “These are policy tools that have an explicit aim around reducing the power of white supremacy,” Baker said. In a study published in 2019, Baker and her co-authors found states were more likely to adopt bans on affirmative action when white enrollment at public flagship universities dropped. ![]() The high court is expected to rule in each of the cases by the end of June.īoth cases focus on policies that address historic racial disparities in access to higher education, as Black borrowers tend to take on disproportionately more debt to afford college, said Dominique Baker, an education policy professor at Southern Methodist University.īacklash to racial progress tends to follow periods of social change and advancement, Baker said. The cases were brought by a conservative activist who argues the Constitution forbids the use of race in college admissions. In the affirmative action cases, the court is considering the use of race-conscious admissions policies that many selective colleges have used for decades to help build diversity on their campuses. Six Republican-led states filed a legal challenge questioning whether the president, a Democrat, has authority to forgive the debt. About half of the average debt held by Black and Hispanic borrowers would be wiped out, according to the White House. The president’s plan forgives up to $10,000 in federal student debt for borrowers, and doubles the debt relief to $20,000 for borrowers who also received Pell Grants. But now it’s time to deliver on those promises,” he said. “Year after year, we have elected officials, we have advocates, we have different politicos coming to our communities making promises. The rulings could also have political consequences among a generation of young voters of color who took Biden at his word when he promised to cancel debt, said Wisdom Cole, director of NAACP’s youth and college program. “From a pandemic, an uprising, a recession, the cost of living price going up. “I feel like working people have been through enough - I have been through enough,” said Green, a community organizer. To Green and many other people of color, the efforts to roll them back reflect a larger backlash to racial progress in higher education. Now, both affirmative action and the student loan cancellation plan - policies that disproportionately help Black students - could soon be dismantled by the U.S. ![]() As a borrower who still owes just over $20,000 on her undergraduate student loans, she has been counting on President Joe Biden’s promised debt relief to wipe nearly all of that away. ![]()
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