[ad_1]
A billionaire of private capital who pledged to repay the debt of nearly 400 graduates from Morehouse College in the spring was arranged and the bill was lower than what it was. Was committed to cover, announced Friday the institution.
Robert F. Smith, Founder, President and CEO of Vista Equity Partners, and his family have donated $ 34 million to the new student success program at Morehouse College to repay loans that students and parents of the promotion 2019 have accumulated to fund Morehouse education, "said the school in a statement.
Smith promised in May to pay up to $ 40 million to cover the student loan of the 2019 promotion, one of the crown jewels of historically black universities and colleges in the country.
"You, the great men of Morehouse, are bound only by the bounds of your belief and your creativity," Smith said in a surprise announcement during his opening speech at the college. liberal arts for men in Atlanta.
This grant is a welcome respite from the country's student loan debt crisis: $ 1.6 trillion in personal red ink that, according to experts, has a disproportionate impact on people of color, aspiring to low income and students from for-profit institutions.
"This Robert Smith liberation gift – the first of its kind to be announced at the end of his graduate studies – will change the lives of our new men from Morehouse and their families," Morehouse President David A. said Friday. Thomas.
Mark Kantrowitz, publisher of SavingForCollege.com, said: "This gift is well-focused on the need because students at Morehouse College are forced to borrow an amount of debt above average."
But proponents of student loan reform are hoping that this extraordinary gift will not detract from the attention of a student debt crisis that could stifle dreams of graduate degrees. and create a brake for the economy. The Brookings Institution said in a report last year that nearly 40% of borrowers who took out a student loan could default by 2023.
Sandy Baum, Research Fellow at the Urban Institute's Center for Education Data and Policy, said donation was a ray of light, but it was not the type of long-term solution. term that the crisis requires.
"You do not want to criticize anyone who gives a lot of money to help those who need it," she said. "It was very generous."
According to Morehouse, the average graduate carries a student loan debt of between $ 35,000 and $ 40,000, more than the average student of historically black colleges and universities, per day of commencement.
According to Baum, the student debt crisis needs a selective collective response targeting students who need help the most.
"We do not need to give up the debt of those who can afford it," she said. "We need to think carefully about how to design policies that target the most disadvantaged people, not those that will be successful in the long run."
Kantrowitz said that if all the billionaires in the country made similar commitments to Smith's, that would still not eliminate student debt.
Effective solutions, he said, would be to allow people with student debts to declare personal bankruptcy, triple the amount of Pell Grant grants to low-income students, and stop taxes. on private stock exchanges.
Sara Goldrick-Rab, professor of higher education policy at Temple University in Philadelphia, said the student debt crisis was in the hands of voters.
"Students need philanthropy, policy change and people to run and vote next fall," she said by e-mail. "If you think university studies are too expensive and student debt hurts, then your most effective action is to vote."
[ad_2]
Source link