Rather than help poor students attend college, state schools are using their resources to attract high-achieving, affluent, out-of-state students who can pay more tuition and boost the college’s national rankings. By bringing in more wealthy out-of-towners, these public schools are becoming “bastions of privilege,” wrote Stephen Burd, a senior policy analyst at New America and the author of the report. And that is often to the detriment of low-income kids and students of color.
Despite getting good grades in high school, New Jersey native Brianna Battle, 20, received no scholarships or grants to attend Rutgers University in New Brunswick, N.J. Battle’s parents stashed away enough money in a 529 college savings plan to cover the first two years of in-state tuition, but by her junior year the political science major had to borrow. Battle, who is African American, expects that by the time she graduates in 2016 she will be on the hook for about $20,000 in student loans.
“No matter what I decide to do after graduation I know I’m going to be in a lot of debt,” she said. “Going to grad school would be great, but that’s just another expense that I’m going to have to pay back.”
A body of research suggests that taking out small loans to pay for college is a manageable expense for graduates, but borrowing more than $10,000 could be detrimental to students of color or students without family resources to buffer against the risk of borrowing, according to the Demos report. High debt load can also lead students to drop out of college, which can make it more difficult to repay the loans.