Canceling student debt isn’t just an economic issue but a racial justice one, too, argued higher education leaders and policymakers during a virtual convening by the Center for Responsible Lending and the NAACP. 

Research shows that Black students with bachelor’s degrees owe an average of $7,400 more in student debt than their White counterparts. And, as time passes, that gap widens. Four years after graduation, Black graduates owe almost twice as much as White graduates at $53,000.

Even as cases of coronavirus surge nationwide, many colleges and universities are announcing plans to bring students back to campus for the spring semester.

Georgetown University, Morehouse College, Smith College, the University of Florida, and Princeton University are among the schools inviting undergraduates to live on campus come January after being largely virtual in the fall. For some schools, reopening is a financial necessity.