Borrowing Inequality: Race, Class, and the Impact of Student Loans

Drawing on a national study of student-borrowing patterns, Derek Price finds that racial and ethnic minorities and low-income students are not only more likely to borrow than their white and upper-income peers, they also are less likely to graduate from high-status institutions and go on to graduate school. In addition, current loan programs so burden student borrowers that their career opportunities are restricted, in effect perpetuating the very patterns of inequality that the programs were intended to alleviate. While the graduates' prospects clearly are higher than they would have been without higher education, the structural pattern of inequality continues to reflect race, ethnic, gender, and class characteristics.