Divine Justice Hilliard, 24, was in college when she participated in a program designed for single parents. While the program provided assistance for campus housing and childcare for her now elementary-school-aged child, she graduated with almost $70,000 in student loan debt. As the end of the US student debt repayment pause looms, Hilliard wondered: “Am I going to die with that debt?”
When emails regarding Joe Biden’s student loan forgiveness plan first went out, Hilliard signed up with hope. Her first few loans had been taken out under both her and her mother’s names. Hilliard, who lives in New York, has worked since she was 14 years old. She said parenting, working and studying as a full-time student was exhausting and put her in “straight survival mode”. But going to college was imperative for Hillard, who said she wanted to be the “generational curse-breaker” in her family. It’s the debt, she said, that makes it feel like she took several steps back.
The payment pause, which ends this week after three and a half years, means people like Hilliard who parented while in college are uniquely affected by intersecting economic crises: childcare and cost of living, all exacerbated by the student debt crisis.
“It’s been a huge point of stress for me, because I already work two jobs,” said Justice McNeil, a young parent in Pennsylvania who had her daughter after graduating. As a first-generation college student who helped with bills in her household, McNeil worked multiple jobs throughout college. She’s considering looking for a third job, ideally one where she can take her daughter. If she can’t, she’ll be paying out of pocket for childcare and transportation costs, which would impact the additional income she has to put toward loan payments.
McNeil explained that many people cannot afford to prioritize paying their student loans back right now.
“It’s a matter of whether we’re going to put food on our tables or whether we’re going to make our monthly loan payment that we can’t afford,” McNeil said.
Basic necessities like housing are notably a major part of the debt that many parent borrowers are about to start having to pay down again. Most of the debt that Jessica Pelton, 30, and her husband, who live in Michigan, have is primarily from needing rent money or car insurance.
“None of it was actually used for education,” she explained. “It was just to survive while getting an education and having a child.”
When she heard student debt relief was coming, “It was like, oh, this could literally save our lives,” she said. It would’ve wiped about two-thirds of their debt. Now, it’s a concern of knowing you have to fit the payment in, even if inflation has driven expenses to the brink.
“So, what are we gonna give up? What are we maybe going to lose?” Pelton asked.
Nicole Lynn Lewis, founder of Generation Hope, a non-profit that engages education and policy partners in systemic change to support student parents, as well as providing direct support to teens parents in college and their children, told the Guardian that student parents are disproportionately affected by student debt. Black student parents are especially affected, Lewis added, holding more student debt than other student parents and non-parents of any other racial or ethnic group.
And that impact isn’t just about higher expenses either – though the expenses around childcare, housing and transportation are significant (the out-of-pocket cost of attending a public school is roughly two to five times higher for student parents than for low-income students without children, according to The Education Trust).
Lewis said it’s also “due to our country’s legacy of withholding resources from certain communities, particularly communities of color, and particularly Black communities”.
Because student parents face a disproportionate debt burden, payments restarting and forgiveness being in flux – with advocacy for cancellation – can feel daunting.
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“It feels like a defeat almost,” Hilliard said of Biden’s forgiveness plan not coming through. Even a piece would’ve been so beneficial, she added, “to just have it taken away – almost like we don’t deserve it”.
While Hilliard finished her program with a degree, the same cannot be said of every borrower – particularly borrowers who are also parents. Student parents are statistically 10 times less likely to graduate. This is due in large part to how collegiate and policy systems are not designed with them in mind, despite earning grades comparable to their non-parent peers, or, according to some estimates, earning higher GPAs.
Brittani Williams, higher education senior policy analyst at The Education Trust, emphasized that supporting students – specifically of Black mothers – to degree completion is only one piece of the puzzle. Unequal pay once a graduate is in the workforce also adds to ballooning debt.
“If we attained the degrees to have upward economic mobility, but our economic portion is not given fairly, then it does exacerbate not just debt – all of the expenses that we may be carrying,” Williams said.
Williams pointed to a report from The Education Trust which notes that Black women are burdened the most by the high cost of college, and due to structural racism and sexism, have less resources to fund higher education to begin with. As Black women are more likely to be student parents, the debt crisis compounds.
Like Williams, Lewis, too, said Black student parents are at the center of the student debt crisis and shared how she’s trying to fix it. Scholars in her Generation Hope non-profit have lower rates of debt than other parenting students. The organization connects students with resources and helps them understand financial aid options, in addition to advocating for affordability policies, like the free college initiative, and helping develop institutional supports, including other campus childcare solutions.
“This is about trying to address the wrongs that have been happening for so long,” she said.
In late August, Joe Biden announced a new income-driven repayment program, the Save plan, while nearly 90 Democrats in Congress sent Biden a letter, urging him to do more to address student debt.
Looking ahead, payments restarting scares Hilliard. She needs a new car and would love to own a home for her and her daughter, but feels her credit and debt will affect her future planning. She said she would feel like she won the lottery if any of her debt was canceled – it would feel like a relief, a chance to pour more into her daughter’s future and her own. The goal of getting higher education is to have better opportunities, she said, but debt means it feels like “you’re still going backwards in life”.