Today, the greatest threat to Black educational futures is not a lack of talent or ambition — it’s the United States Supreme Court.
In 2023, conservative justices ended affirmative action in higher education, dealing a blow to Black enrollment. Days later, the court blocked the Biden administration from administering broad-based student debt relief, a move that would have narrowed the racial wealth gap and freed millions of Black borrowers from crushing debt.
Earlier this year, the Supreme Court also cleared the path for the Trump administration to dismantle the Department of Education, striking at the heart of federal civil rights enforcement.
Now the courts are poised to deal another blow.
If a court approves a settlement between the Trump administration and the state of Missouri to dismantle the Saving on a Valuable Education Plan, or SAVE, Black student debtors and others will be thrust into even more dire straits.
SAVE, introduced by the Biden administration, was the most affordable plan for student debtors ever widely available. It lowered millions of borrowers’ monthly payments to zero or close to it. For many, it cut the timeline for eventual student debt relief in half, from 20 years to 10. For nearly 75% of debtors, SAVE also ended interest payments for borrowers who kept up with their monthly principal balance.
The SAVE plan — even without broad-scale debt cancellation — ranked as one of the most progressive federal actions on student debt.
The SAVE plan wasn’t perfect. For example, its payment formula did not account for everyday expenses such as child care. And the reality of all student debt repayment plans is that they can mean a lifetime of debt for Black borrowers, who have described these plans as a “trap” and a “scam.” Corrupt student loan servicers and years of federal mismanagement of a $2 trillion portfolio also mean millions of debtors who are legally entitled to relief haven’t received it.
Still, eliminating the SAVE plan will intensify an already tough situation. Borrowers would see their payments jump by hundreds of dollars as they are forced into costlier repayment options devised by the Trump administration.
Black borrowers, especially Black women, who bear much of the student debt burden, would be disproportionately hurt. Families will be forced to choose between making student debt payments or buying groceries, paying rent, getting dental care or putting gas in the tank. These are impossible choices that hurt working families, drag down the economy and undermine the few social safety nets the country has.
It gets worse. The settlement proposal includes a provision that would, in effect, make broad student debt cancellation nearly impossible to administer for the next 10 years. While 85% of Black student debtors support cancellation, the proposal to end SAVE could also put a decade-long moratorium on the executive action Black borrowers have demanded.
The deck is stacked against student debtors. The ultra-wealthy who can afford to pay the cost of college upfront avoid crushing student loan interest. Meanwhile everyone else pays far more than they borrowed — or never gets out of debt at all. This inequity is especially true for Black borrowers, who must borrow more to attend college, take longer to pay off debt, are more likely to default and earn less in the workplace.
Without intervention, many loans will fall into default, triggering wage garnishment, tax refund seizures and other punitive financial measures that can push people into poverty.
All hope is not lost. Student borrowers — and future borrowers and their co-signers — must take concrete steps to protect themselves. For starters, borrowers should pursue options the Department of Education often doesn’t highlight:
- Seek hardship exemptions to pause and reduce forced collections if they’re facing default.
- Seek lesser-known relief programs such as Temporary and Permanent Disability Discharge, Borrower Defense to Repayment and Closed School Discharge, which offer opportunities for those in need.
- Keep meticulous records. Every payment, communication with a student loan servicer and notice from the Department of Education could be evidence in future complaints or disputes, especially given how frequently loan servicers make errors.
Student debtors must be understood — and must act — as a political constituency. Too often, mainstream media and conventional political spaces portray student debtors as white, wealthy, high-earning graduates of elite institutions. That flawed narrative undermines the reality of the people most harmed.
Student debtors are disproportionately older, Black and brown, women, working class and individuals with a mix of college experience — from attending a historically Black college or university to being defrauded by a predatory institution or unable to finish a degree.
The destruction of Black educational spaces — from attacks on HBCUs to undermining diversity efforts to halting student debt relief — is not new. In an era of financial capitalism, in which the wealthy refuse to pay their fair share and the cost of public goods like college continues to rise, it’s time for debtors — as an economic and political constituency — to rise and demand better.
Braxton Brewington is a community organizer and spokesperson for the Debt Collective and a doctoral student in sociology at the University of North Carolina.
This article originally appeared here