Civil rights groups ask the Department of Education to track education loans for students of color

By Victor Landa, NewsTaco

Apparently the federal government doesn’t for ask the race or ethnicity of student borrowers, so there’s no way to track how students of color are affected by student debt. The Washington Post reports that “Racial disparities in who borrows and struggles with student loans have been documented through the use of surveys conducted every few years by the Federal Reserve or the Census Bureau. Although that information has helped economists, academics and analysts create a framework for discussion, many say the department has a role to play in identifying and addressing inequalities in student lending.”

So a coalition of civil rights groups is asking the Department of Education to change that.

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“’Student loans should be a tool to level the playing field and eliminate some of the disparities in educational outcomes,’ said Persis Yu, director of the student-loan, borrower-assistance project at the National Consumer Law Center, one of the groups involved in the coalition. ‘If we’re seeing a disparity in default rates, it’s worth asking the question of whether it’s doing that job adequately and whether the tools we use to collect are appropriate.’”