student debt

An education bill in the state legislature that supporters say would decrease the college debt burden on Massachusetts students is drawing widespread support for its promise to help erase a major financial barrier that often derails low-income students.

It is said education is the great equalizer, pitted against class divisions and economic and racial divides. That has been a truism for many decades in this country: If you straighten up, work hard, tune out the noise and distractions, focus on your studies and education, you can be anything you believe in and put your mind to. The reality has always been different.

Congresswoman Ayanna Pressley responded to constituent questions and concerns about student debt relief, Black maternal health, reparations and climate change at a Boston event on Oct. 19.

Last week Massachusetts lawmakers came together with education advocates and union leaders to urge President Joe Biden to cancel student loan debt as the clock ticks on the federal moratorium instituted during the coronavirus pandemic.

On Monday nearly 100 students, elected officials and advocates for affordable higher education came together to urge state and federal lawmakers to make good on promises to make college financially feasible for all.

The most ardent calls for student debt cancellation come from borrowers themselves — especially current or former Black borrowers whose families already are forced to cope with a nagging racial wealth gap.

The incoming administration of President-elect Joe Biden will invest billions of dollars in public education to close achievement gaps, modernize school buildings and support schools with high concentrations of low-income students, campaign policy director Stef Feldman told the Education Writers Association in an interview last week.

City Councilors heard testimony Monday from recent college graduates and higher education activists about the impact of student loan debt on Bostonians — a crisis some characterized as a “second pandemic” that disproportionately affects Black and Latino borrowers.