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The National Consumer Law Center sent a letter to Education Secretary John King today asking the Department of Education to track the relationship between student loan debt and racial inequality. The letter follows efforts by the group to obtain the release of data on how federal debt collection practices are affecting minority student borrowers in particular.
It was signed by 39 other legal aid, civil rights and public advocacy groups, including the American Civil Liberties Union, the Institute for College Access and Success, and the Center for Responsible Lending.
“It is unacceptable that, for nearly a decade, the department has known that student loan debt disproportionately harms borrowers of color, and despite this knowledge, has failed to even track this problem, let alone address the issue,” said Persis Yu, director of National Consumer Law Center’s Student Loan Borrower Assistance Project.
Under King, the department has taken steps to add more consumer protections for student loan borrowers, including the creation of a Student Aid Enforcement unit. But the groups who signed on to the letter say having data on race and student debt is needed to be sure that new protections are benefiting all borrowers.
The NCLC earlier this year filed a Freedom of Information Act lawsuit along with the ACLU and the Massachusetts ACLU seeking data on racial impacts of firms collecting federal student debt. The department said in response to a FOIA request that it was not keeping data responsive to the issue.
