student loan debt
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Trump Administration Blocked Investigation Into Student Loan Forgiveness Program
As student loan debt grew into a $1.5 trillion crisis, Trump administration officials coordinated a deliberate effort to obstruct a watchdog agency from investigating abuse by student loan servicers, circumventing a law that offered debt forgiveness to college graduates. In 2007, Congress created the Public Service Loan Forgiveness Program, a plan with a simple idea:…
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Lock Her Up! Betsy DeVos Could Face Jail for Failing to Forgive Student Loan Debt
How corrupt is the Trump administration, you ask? So corrupt that the Department of Education, under the leadership of Trump appointee Betsy DeVos, has still been hounding former students of Corinthian Colleges Inc. to pay their student loan debts. Those same students that were promised that their debts would be forgiven because they were defrauded by…
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Robert F. Smith Gets the Final Bill for His Gift to Morehouse—and the Number Is Stunning
When philanthropist and entrepreneur Robert F. Smith offered to pay the entire balance of the outstanding student loans for Morehouse’s most recent graduating class, not only did the gift eliminate a burden from the backs of hundreds of students but it also sparked a much-needed conversation about student debt and its disproportionate impact on black…
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Congrats, Grad! Morehouse Keynote Speaker Pays Off Debt of Graduating Class
Now we know exactly what it takes to upstage Angela Bassett: Forty million dollars, according to the Atlanta Journal-Constitution. On a hard-earned day of celebration for hundreds of families, Morehouse upped the ante on black excellence. After the casually ethereal Bassett spoke, Robert F. Smith, the billionaire tech investor and philanthropist received an honorary doctorate…
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Elizabeth Warren Proposes $50 Billion in Aid to HBCUs, Student Debt Forgiveness in Radical Higher Ed Reform Package
If there’s one thing Americans of all stripes seem to agree on, it’s that the education system is broken: school districts are increasingly segregated and disproportionately funded at the K-12 level, and the cost of college educations—touted as an essential step toward economic advancement—has become increasingly prohibitive. Because of skyrocketing tuition costs, a student debt…
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Trump, Devos Propose Cap on Student Loans, Ushering in a New Era of Academic Inequality for Working-Class Families
Utter the words “Sallie Mae” around anyone over the age of 18, and there’s an 87% likelihood they’ll either break out in hives or convulse on the floor with a seizure. But for many of us who opt to pursue higher education, student loans are a costly—if not necessary—evil. As such, our alleged president Donald…
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Mandatory Wage Garnishment for Your Student Loans Could Become Law
A Republican-backed proposal currently in the Senate could make automatic wage garnishment for your student loan payments become the law. Sen. Lamar Alexander (R-Tenn.)—who is the chairman of the Senate Health, Education, Labor and Pensions committee—has proposed a massive overhaul to the to the student loan system, and the changes could have an impact on…
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If You Have Student Loans, Grown-Ish and Scholly Are Trying to Make It Rain on Your Loan Provider (for You)
If you’re like me, and presumably millions of other folks across Los Estados Unidos, student loan debt is a monkey on your back. I personally know people whose student loan burden ranges from $4,000 to as high as $200,000. Whether you’re on the low end or the probably-need-to-stay-high-to-manage-it high end, no sentence is more exciting…
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Christmas Miracle: Bank Pays Off Single Mom’s $150,000 Student Loan Debt
There really is a Santa Claus and his real, government name is Fifth Third Bank. On Wednesday, the Ohio-based bank surprised Jasmin Ford, a 30-year-old nurse and single mother, by paying off $150,000 in student loan debt. “I still can’t find the words,” Ford told Good Morning America. “I’m off work again today and I’m…
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Generosity Helps Spelman-Bound Student Whose Mom's Student Loan Debt Almost Prevented Her From Enrolling
We love happy endings at The Root. On Saturday, we posted a story about the struggle college freshman Nayaa Martinique and her family were having after arriving at Spelman College only to learn that Nayaa was unable to enroll. Her mom, Tjai Downs, a teacher and a veteran, attempted to take out a loan to…