The jolt of infl ation
Black students are disproportionately burdened
by debt. Reimagining education can bring equity.
COURIER LIFE, F 30 EBRUARY 18-24, 2022
EDITORIAL
OP-ED
Everyone’s feeling the
pain of infl ation nowadays.
Average prices for
just about anything you buy
and need — food, clothing,
shelter, fuel — have gone up
tremendously, about 7.5 percent
since last year.
Working- and middle-class
families are taking an economic
beating — and it’s even worse for
homeowners and tenants responsible
for paying their electric bills,
which have jumped about 28 percent
in January, nearly four times
the infl ation rate itself.
Con Edison, which supplies
electricity to most of New York
City, blamed it on the volatile energy
market, particularly rising
prices for natural gas, which predominantly
keeps their turbines
running.
Though a perfectly legitimate
excuse, that still didn’t sit well
with most New Yorkers who read
about it — nor did it satisfy Governor
Kathy Hochul, who on Friday
ordered Con Edison to review
their billing practices and report
back to the state’s Public Services
Commission, which oversees all
utilities.
If volatility in the fossil fuel
markets is the main cause for the
price spike, then most would conclude
that Con Edison must do
more to get its eggs out of that one
basket and invest in green energy.
The utility giant says it is doing
just that in its “Clean Energy
Commitment” plan, which has
lofty goals of building “a resilient,
22nd (sic) century electric grid
that delivers 100 percent clean energy
by 2040,” utilizing a combination
of predominantly renewable
wind and solar power to keep
the city’s lights on.
Of course, New Yorkers can’t
wait 18 years for a break in their
utility bills, either.
The situation again speaks to
the need for federal investment in
green energy infrastructure in
New York.
The Build Back Better Act,
passed in the House but stalled in
the Senate, includes a $555 billion
investment in green energy. That
includes increased incentives for
homeowners to install solar electric
systems on their buildings,
making each structure self-suffi
cient in fulfi lling their power
needs while also easing the strain
on electric power grids.
Solar systems also provide the
added benefi t of generating excess
power that can be pumped back
into the power grid itself.
The Senate must act to pass
the Build Back Better Act and
support expansions of the Home
Energy Assistance Program
(HEAP), which offers low-income
residents relief on their utility
bills.
These solutions may not immediately
solve the city’s infl ated
electricity bill problem, but it sets
up a more effi cient economy down
the road where New Yorkers
won’t have to experience a sudden
jolt of infl ation every year.
BY REBECCA L. WATTS
Despite the United States
Department of Education’s recent
action to extend the pause
on Federal student loan payments
through May 1, 2022,
student debt still looms as
a national crisis impacting
more than 43 million Americans
who owe a combined
$1.75 trillion in federal and
private student costs.
However, the student debt
crisis is not hitting American
families equally. Black
student loan borrowers owe
an average of $25,000 more in
student loan debt than white
college graduates four years
after graduation, according to
data from The Brookings Institution.
The Brookings Institution
further reports that
on average, Black and African
American college graduates
owe $52,726 in student debt,
and research from the American
Association of University
Women found that Black
women have the highest student
debt among any racial or
ethnic group. Four years after
earning their degree, debt
statistics show 48 percent of
Black students owe an average
of 12.5 percent more than they
borrowed.
Education that improves
career pathways and leads to
thriving-wage jobs is one obvious
solution to this income
disparity. But before earning
a degree, many Black students
begin college with economic
disadvantage that limits opportunity
for advancement
compared to their classmates.
The latest fi ndings of the
American Council on Education
shows that nearly 60 percent
of all Black undergraduates
come from low income
backgrounds — a greater percentage
than any other racial
or ethnic group.
These imbalances continue
after graduation. While
education is a powerful tool
that can help alleviate the racial
wealth gap, the Brookings
Institution notes that Black
student debt reinforces existing
gaps and the ratio of white
family wealth to Black family
wealth is higher today than
at the start of the century. Today,
the average white college
graduate has over seven times
more wealth than a Black college
graduate and a white family
has roughly 10 times the
amount of wealth as the average
Black family.
In New York City, Black
students have suffered a disproportionate
burden. The
rate of student loan holders
with debt in collections in
Black and Hispanic neighborhoods
— home to nearly threequarters
of the city’s Black
residents — is 16 percent, according
to the New York City
Department of Consumer Affairs.
That’s double the default
rate (8 percent) found in predominantly
white and Asian
neighborhoods.
There has been some relief;
programs that forgive student
loans, such as the initiative
to zero out $125 million
in debt for 50,000 CUNY students,
are commendable. Most
recently, CUNY and SUNY
stopped withholding transcripts
from students with unpaid
balances, a practice that
New York’s governor rightly
admonished as a barrier to
opportunity. But to truly address
this issue at its root, we
need to look forward.
Education is due for a reimagining
— one that reduces
debt for learners from day 1.
Competency-based education,
measuring skills and
subject knowledge rather than
time spent in a classroom, is
one relatively new approach
that has proven successful at
lowering Black student loans.
In 2020, the average debt of
a Black student graduating
with a bachelor’s degree from
the nonprofi t Western Governors
University — which
pioneered the model in 1997
and solely offers accredited,
competency-based programs
— was $14,988, compared to a
reported $52,726 in 2016 by the
Brookings Institution.
Then there’s philanthropic
and grant-funded education
provided by nonprofi ts
such as Per Scholas. Founded
in the Bronx and now in 17
U.S. cities, Per Scholas provides
tuition-free courses for
people seeking tech careers.
Students, 90 percent of whom
are people of color, come away
with no debt and workforcerelevant
skills.
Innovative learning models
are complementary to the
traditional — and excellent
— higher education options
in New York. If we want to
expand college accessibility
and achieve more equitable
post-graduation outcomes for
Black and other historically
underrepresented students,
higher education providers,
policy makers, and students
must recognize the benefi ts of
models that value skills-based
mastery while addressing affordability.
Innovation is key to addressing
Black student debt.
We owe it to New Yorkers to advance
new ways of delivering
quality education without the
inequitable fi nancial burden.
Rebecca L. Watts, Ph.D.,
serves as a regional vice president
for Western Governors
University.
We owe it to New Yorkers to advance new ways of delivering quality
education without the inequitable financial burden.