Thread by @SenWarren

People still have questions about who benefits most if we #CancelStudentDebt. @SenSchumer and I set the record straight on who struggles with student loans and why it falls particularly hard on Black and Latinx students. Check out our new @Blavity op-ed. blavity.com/why-we-elizabe…

Let’s just be clear: millionaires and billionaires don’t need to take out student loans, nor do their kids. Student loans are for people whose family couldn’t afford to write a check for college but who still tried to get an education anyway. #CancelStudentDebt

Up to 40% of people with student loan debt – and the majority of Black students – don’t have a degree years after starting college. Maybe they couldn’t afford to finish, needed to work, didn’t have child care, life happened – whatever. #CancelStudentDebt

The point is, I’ve looked at the data on this. And it’s wrong to think everyone with student debt is a college graduate. Millions of people struggle beneath a growing debt load without a degree to boost their earnings. #CancelStudentDebt

For many systemic reasons, Black and Latinx households have a lot less wealth that white households. These students are more likely to borrow money to go to college, borrow more money while in college, and have a harder time paying when they leave college. #CancelStudentDebt

1/3 of Latinx borrowers default on their student loans, and Black borrowers have about a 50-50 chance of defaulting on their loans. In fact, a decade after they start school, the typical Black borrower owes more on their loan than they originally borrowed. #CancelStudentDebt

Black and Brown students go to college because they believe it’s the surest path to build a future. They worked hard, did everything right, and often had no choice but to borrow loans. But student debt is a giant roadblock between them and building wealth. #CancelStudentDebt

Executive action by the Biden-Harris administration to #CancelStudentDebt can boost Black and Latinx wealth, and help close the Black-white AND Latinx-white wealth gap by over 25%. That will help give Black and Brown families a far better shot at building some financial security.

Canceling student debt will help families spend money in their local communities and our economy. It will help them buy homes or start small businesses that create jobs. And it will take us a step closer to fixing a deeply broken higher ed system. #CancelStudentDebt

Young people never fully recovered from the 2008 financial crisis. They now face the second major economic crisis of their young lives. And many borrowers, especially Black and Brown borrowers, are still drowning. We can do better this time – we must do better. #CancelStudentDebt