Canceling Student Debt Will Help Health Care Workers and Advance Racial Justice
New article just published on Truthout
This is an excerpt from a piece I wrote that was published today on Truthout detailing how canceling student debt would be a great way to help healthcare workers and provide some racial justice. It’s a no-brainer, over-lapping, two-for-one deal.
You can read the whole article by clicking here, or on the hyperlink beneath the excerpt. It’s up to you.
Free will and all, you know? Choices.
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Canceling Student Debt Will Help Health Care Workers and Advance Racial Justice
There’s been a lot of talk from Democrats in power about the bravery and sacrifice of health care workers and the importance of racial equity.
Words are nice, but they don’t improve people’s lives.
But there’s one simple policy, tantalizingly close to passing that can make things better for health care workers in an instant: canceling student debt.
Health care workers have more student loan debt than workers in any other industry, holding approximately $9,700 more in debt per person than those who work in higher education, who are the second-highest debt holders on the list. Private health care workers and social workers hold an average of $72,800 in student debt, which is more than double the national average. It’s worth noting that more than half of health care workers employed in direct-contact, home and community-based service positions are people of color. Average debt for nurses ranges from $19,928 for an associate’s degree to $47,321 for a master’s degree. Average debt from medical school is a staggering $215,900.
The entire health care industry is stitched to higher education and thus to student debt. So instead of offering a free coffee or a yard sign thanking health care workers, how about we cancel all student debt and dramatically improve their lives, and millions of others, immediately.
Though he would likely face challenges, President Biden could undertake this action via an executive order. And it’s not just a higher education problem; it’s also, as Congresswoman Ayanna Pressley stated, “ a racial justice issue.”
Black college graduates are more likely to receive federal loans and hold an average of $25,000 more in student loan debt than white borrowers.
Forty percent of Black grad school graduates hold student loan debt compared to 22 percent of white students, and over 50 percent of Black borrowers reported that their student loan debt is higher than their net worth. This is a textbook example of systemic, structural racism, which is something that the Biden administration has repeatedly pledged to address.